Each day I do meditation to ground myself, but part of the meditation also involves sustaining protective magic as part of the grounding aspect. Protection from what? Protection from external influences, or internal beliefs, or a combination of the two, or some dastardly wizard out to get me, because of something I said or did?
I've seen several books on protection and reversal magic, where someone throws something at you and you say, "I'm rubber and you're glue." I've always found it interesting that people will buy the books and put so much effort toward protecting themselves and then I'm reminded I do daily work that essentially acts as a protection.
I think protection is important, to one degree or another. For some people, who have a need for drama, protection may be especially important as a way to protect against the magic someone else might do toward them. Whether someone is doing magic or not is a question, because for such people there is a suspicion that it's all in their heads. On the other hand, there are legitimate cases where another magician will try to mess with you for whatever reason and it pays to have protection against those people. Setting up your home with wards and reinforcing them can pay off, when someone comes knocking on your door with a desire to put the hurt on you.
But for the majority of times that I really think about magical protection, it's really for potential mundane disasters. Car accidents, natural disasters etc. It's magic you do for that eventual day when something comes up that's out of your control and the only thing you can do is hope what you've put into place will turn it aside enough to make sure you walk away.
There's always a place for protection, so long as we don't let it stop us from experiencing the world. Protect yourself, but also challenge yourself.