Are there other users here who do not use a DM to get in their graphical session ?
Back in the days of my first steps with Linux, i do not remember that DM’s were widely used. You would get a command prompt on console, and then ‘startx’.
Since some times i began to be fed up with DM and a bit nostlgic about these old days. So i decide to remove lightdm and go back to startx.
Am i just a too nostalgic old nerd ? 
Same here 
One less thing that can break 
No don’t need one
I don’t use one if my installation is WM only, but if using a DE (expecially gnome or KDE) not using a DM will make so many thing don’t work correctly that is not worth it IMO. That being said I would prefere it wasn’t the case.
I do not know for KDE or Plasma, but i use Xfce and the lack of DM do not seems to break anything. But it’s just for my use case.
FYI, you can run KDE Plasma without a DM just fine.
I don’t use one, and haven’t for years. I always struck issues with DM’s especially lightdm so I use the .xinitrc method for logging in/starting X.
Well, I used to do the startx but with Linux getting better I never faced any issue with any DM. Specially LightDM. Even after I replaced the default LightDM with its webkit2 edition or version. Only once did I have an issue it was because I didn’t enable debugging after doing that all good. If there are ways to make things simple and make things look nice then why not use them.
Is that so now? Good to know. When plasma5 rolled over I remember that start plasma from .xinitrc was a recipe to have the most weirder behavior!