I own guides for FF's 7, 8, 9, and Origins (and I used to own one for Chronicles), but received the majority of them as gifts, and almost always after I had played through the game several times. I mostly use them for reference when helping others, though, and I used to run an FF site for which they were very helpful.

I have nothing against the use of walkthroughs if it makes the game more enjoyable. Back when I had limitless amounts of time to play games, I'd just search, and search, and search to figure out where I needed to go before I would resort to looking at a walkthrough. Now, I don't care. I really only have time to enjoy the story these days, so if I get stuck, I'm looking it up, rather than aimlessly wandering around, and trying to figure it out on my own. I remember referring to the Wind Waker guide many times.