Are HUDs necessary or can you win without them?

been thinking about this more lately… i’ve played a ton online with and without a hud, and honestly i see people winning both ways. when i’m using a hud i notice leaks in opponents faster, but sometimes i feel like i get too into the stats and miss some live dynamics or table flow. even without a hud, if i stay focused, i still pick up on patterns - just more the old school way by tracking notes or mental cues. definitely feels like you can get by without all the data popping up, but then again, am i just leveling myself out of easy decisions sometimes?

curious how you guys handle it - do you rely on memory and reads, or is the info advantage just too hard to give up? especially interested in folks who play multiple tables or go back and forth from live to online. just seems like everybody has a slightly different approach, but maybe there’s something i’m missing if i ditch the hud.