Much bigger deal in the bad old days with teeny little rotors barely up to sinking the heat of braking those old barges once, not to mention repeatedly.
You machine rotors that don't need it, you make them perform worse, as you take away thermal mass and promote warping rather than alleviating it. A check with a dial indicator or calipers for runout, a look for any surface damage that would merit replacement, a bit of surface prep and away you go on something decently braked like this car. I will ALWAYS replace a rotor before machining it; it just isn't worth it.
I teach auto shop and know why people were taught that in the first place. It's more better safe than sorry with some of the poor machining practices or materials choice by the oems or aftermarket. Many less honest shops also used the myth of "always machine" to take a new rotor down to min thickness, knowing the customer would be back within a year or so for new ones.
On top of that, alot of places don't have the right equipment to do a proper machining job on a rotor. A poor machining job is infinitely worse than none at all.