D&D 5E (2014) Another "have I always played it wrong?" moment: Cover!

[The Crimson Binome]

If that were strictly true, I don't think anyone would ever choose to utilize TOTM.

I do it all the time, when the party is fighting a few orcs or a golem, and nobody is going to provoke an opportunity attack at any point. (It certainly helps, that flanking is no longer a thing.) It's just faster to track everything in my head, if I can be relatively certain that knowing the exact positions of everything won't change the players' decisions in any way.