When do you stop worrying about a guitar?

I baby my guitars. I like 'em clean and shiny. That's just me.

I baby my guitars no more than I baby the tools in my garage.

That is to say I do not throw my tools around; I take care of them because I need them to work when I need them to. Same for guitars: they are tools, and yeah, they do collect character through use.

Stuff happens.

My Epiphone ES 175 nitro finish/ with Gibson pups stock recently fell out of the case display I had it sitting it.

Checked the finish, nicks, cracks, no structure damage, only visual.
That's ok, now I can beat on it and not worry.

Far too easy to get wound up about it unless you're talking a big buck axe.

I used to polish them etc, but haven't in a long time, and I don't get anxiety if I accidently ding them, life's to short to worry about nicks and dings
that's said I'm careful w/them

All of my poly finish guitars still look great, old or new. My Les Paul that I bought new 20 years ago was from an era where I wore studded belts etc. lol. That soft nitro finish has some buckle rash and some dings here and there. The frets have some flat spots that do not affect its playability. I "brushed" all of the nickel or chrome parts with steel wool back in the day. That guitar barely gets used now. It's my most expensive and most sentimental, but it's not my favorite to play. I don't really care if it gets dinged up as long as it was from playing it.

I guess I don't mind any dings on any guitars as long as any damage is from using them. I have an old A&L (Seagull) acoustic that I bought with my high school girlfriend at the store with me when we were freshmen in college. It's made of cherry wood and sounds amazing now. It always sounded pretty good, but it's exceptional 25 years later! It's very plain in the looks department unfortunately. It has a crack in its top, but it's still groovy. I treat it like a beater but it sounds like an expensive guitar. Love it.

For the most part, I play mine.

Some are case queens, to be sure... but for example my '79 Les Paul Custom is just about worn out because I play it.

My old bandmate babies and fusses over his one guitar - an SG that he bought new in '81. It still has signs of age.

I treat my instruments with respect but not obsessive about it. My 2002 Martin acoustic was my workhorse for years and it shows.
My 91 Tele is my go-to and was repainted in nitro over the original sunburst. I told the painter not to strip it because it'd be cool when the nitro wore thru and showed the burst. But it wont happen in my lifetime.

I take care of my guitars for the purpose of getting the use out of them. I make efforts to keep them in good shape so that I can play them as long as possible without worrying about technical problems that arise from misuse.

So nearly all of my guitars are on stands in one of the music rooms. My Martin D18 lives on a wall mount.

The only exception is the classical guitar that I had commissioned overseas and used to finish university. It's probably just out of habit of having to keep it safe during transport all over the place in my car w/o a/c or heat back in the day but I still keep it shiny in a case.

I was playing my bass in a blues band and abruptly stopped using it when I got an opportunity to play lead guitar in another band. I had never cleaned the bass up for long-term storage when I put it away after the last time I used it. Several years later I opened the case and found green stuff growing on the strings in the upper register. Ewww. It cleaned off but I realized after I retired from gigging regularly, I need to store these guitars properly if I expect them to be in good condition next time I open the case.