FWIW, I tried to use my iPhone X without a screen protector but the glass was getting scratched all to hell. I had no worries about it cracking or anything, but it seems to have been a common problem:
What are you using it for, driving nails? I had many smartphones in over a decade and never a single scratch on a screen, without using any screen protector.
The X was just bad for tiny scratches. Mine had a bunch and it was stored in my pocket without anything else in the pocket to scratch it. It was the only phone I had that scratched like this.
yeah, if you put your phone in a pocket together with you key fob then that's not so different from using it to drive nails :) Fortunately, even skinny jeans usually have more than one pocket.
https://gizmodo.com/iphone-x-damage-report-two-months-later-...