Spent $85 on a 1/4 inch torque wrench for carbon bars and it saved me from cracking a $200 set
Watched a guy at the co-op in Portland crank his stem bolts by feel last Tuesday and snap the bar right at the clamp, so yeah, the click type was worth every penny, anybody else got a tool that paid for itself the first time you touched it?
Feels bad for your buddy but man that stripped head is such a classic lesson. Watched my brother do the same thing on his truck's oil pan drain plug, dude swore he had the touch and cranked it till the bolt just gave up and spun. That whole "I know the feel" thing works right up until it doesn't, and then you're paying a shop four hundred bucks to fix what a twenty dollar tool would've stopped. Your civic story is exactly it though, 13 ft lbs on a spark plug feels like barely snug and your hands want to keep going. Bet your buddy thinks about that wrench every time he picks one up now.
My torque wrench story is kinda the same thing but with my car. Was doing spark plugs on my old civic and the book said 13 ft lbs, which felt like nothing when I hand tightened them. Borrowed my neighbor's wrench, clicked right at 13, and I left it. Two weeks later my buddy stripped his head going way too tight because he "knew the feel." Cost him like $400 at a shop. Sometimes the tool is just there to stop you from trusting your hands too much.