There was a question on another web site that asked the above question. Here was my reply:
Let me modify my reply of Essential. they are only essential if you do ANYTHING with your Hands,... like brush your teeth, drive your car, write, open doors. Put on your own clothes. If you don't do any of these things, you really don't need to use gloves.
Seriously, Just this month a group of us were riding Bicycles when one of us went down doing ~20mph. He wasn't wearing gloves. Where do you think I got the above list of life activitiies---from him. And that was on a bicycle at 20MPH.. Of course none of us ever go much faster than 20 mph, not!
Bill