Yes, I almost never use artificial fill -- either lights or reflectors -- if I can avoid it. That way I don't have to lug around a bunch of extra stuff, and more importantly, I much prefer the look this way. Fill often just looks too artificial. But, even the most modern cameras and sensors have such a limited dynamic range compared to our eye-brain connection that they don't "see" things like humans do. For that reason it's typically necessary to dodge shadows and/or burn highlights a bit in order to make a photo look close to how we perceive things in real life.
A lot of photographers like straight out of the camera or SOOC results. But I find them almost always unsatisfying. Not denigrating it if anyone reading this likes that approach, it's just not for me.
In a practical sense, I expose so the highlights will not be blown out, but that usually results in shadow areas appearing darker in an unedited photo than how they appeared to me at the time of exposure. So, holding back or dodging shadows is usually necessary to bring things back into proper balance, at least how I perceived them. The trick is doing the editing so it appears as natural as possible and is not too obviously manipulated.
