Things are different in the power-meter era. Back in the day, gear and cadence was used for lots of stuff.

I recall one tip about sprinting, was to put the bike in the most likely sprinting gear, say 53x16 for example, and pedal backwards from the finish line for 20 strokes to find the optimal starting point for the final kick. There were lots of rules of thumb like that.

Anyway, I glance down fairly often, mainly to make sure I'm not cross-chaining too badly.