I'd love to try riding in the rain. Someday when it rains here I'll get my chance.

In the past year of riding to work every day I can, I've ridden in the rain once. Five minutes into my ride the rain had stopped, and five minutes after that the roads were dry. Even with that one rain ride, my rear rack did an acceptable job of keeping the spray off my back (y'all do ride with racks, don't you?), and the spray from the front wheel wasn't enough to worry about for that short period of time.

If you live somewhere that it rains frequently, and if you ride in the rain, I can see where fenders could be a good thing. If you're lugging them around most of the year to keep you dry for the five minutes a year that the roads are wet, they're silly and pointless. Kind of like having a rack but always using a backpack instead of panniers, or putting a great light on the bike you never ride after dark, or any number of other silly, pointless things.

In short, ride a bike that suits your riding conditions.