Back to the question that was asked, if you don't have enough weight on the back wheel to make it handle badly, there is no need for any weight distribution to the front. In that case, you can skip the extra stuff like front rack and panniers.

I did a group tour a couple years ago. One guy had a Co-Motion Americano which is a very robust touring bike with tandem specification wheels. I asked why he had the giant sized Arkel panniers on back and no weight on the front other than a handlebar bag. He said his bike was so solid that he did not notice any worse handling with all that weight on back so he decided to leave the front panniers and front rack at home for that trip to make packing the bike in the S&S case easier.

I also have a very robust bike that handles very well with a heavy rear load, but I have not used that bike on any tours where I packed light enough to get it all in just a rear pair of panniers. My other touring bike and and a touring bike that I no longer have needed to have the weight distributed better to avoid hampering the handling.