piercers are professional piercers, thats it. and some cant even call themselves professional anyway. and true, if her opinions matter so much why even ask on here?
everyone gets their own experiences so maybe you just gotta do things your own way.
my whole history of stretching methods has been far from "by the book" and my ears are totally fine. if you wanna start taping my all means do it. i even used electrical tape, just gotta keep your plugs clean.
before theyre healed and you still cant take them out, do your best to wash them in the shower, after that just take your plugs out before stepping in like getting undressed, wash and put them back in when your done with the shower..
another solution is what i did, everysingle pair of plugs i bought i had to fall in love with first, even tapers. that way, when i would get to that size i would just leave them in, enjoy them for a few months, my ears by that time would be looser and almost to the next size anyway, when i was ready, id look for another pair of plugs to fall in love with that were couple sizes bigger and work up to them. wash, rinse, repeat.
in the end, its your body.