[Aaronious]

Technically no, you can do whatever you want.

But your substrate looks very clean, I wouldn't vac for awhile and when starting to would only do a portion at a time (like one corner at a time, then the middle right, mid left, repeat or something). Generally, I just clean up the dirty pockets and only gravel vac a few times a year to be honest. And that's after not gravel vac for the first 6-12 months depending on the setup. Point is I rarely do and only do to pull up thick amounts of dirt.

Your worms will like that gunk in there, so I would gravel vac less than what it appears you do at the very least. Also, there are layers of bacteria that builds up and it takes a long time, months probably to fully establish. And gravel vaccing upsets this process. So by not gravel vaccing as much you will build an environment for two types of beneficial creatures.

Gravel vaccing the front for its unsightliness is up to you, and again, I do use the gravel vac as a water syphon to pick up all the detritus and poop on the surface of the substrate.

 

[Johntheskier]

Gravel vaccing the front for its unsightliness is up to you, and again, I do use the gravel vac as a water syphon to pick up all the detritus and poop on the surface of the substrate.

I do the same just to keep my tanks kind of clean looking.

 

[somewhatshocked]

is it necessary to gravel vac and would my plants do better if I didn't?

It's not necessary. In fact, I'd argue is generally frowned upon by experienced hobbyists. Removal of detritus from the surface of substrate should suffice. Vacuuming substrate can cause problems with sensitive livestock and if you have snails, they're taking care of any large chunks of detritus anyway.

Your plants could potentially do better if you didn't because there'd be additional nutrients in the substrate for them to consume.