It's not just about the warranty, it's about getting the max life out of your saddle. Brooks has been making their saddles for over 100 years they know what to use and what will ruin the saddle. The saddle is different then a shoe or a baseball glove, it's designed to hammock your butt, and if you soften the leather too much then that hammock designs sags too much because it's stretching to much which will lead to premature saddle failure. And just like any product made there could always be a chance that the warranty will be used, and I'm sure there is someone somewhere that has used it...and I bet some of those people tried to use it after doing bazaar treatments to it that someone "in the know" told them works the best.