I also have never been one to use a torque wrench on spark plugs, and thanks to my father, neither is my younger brother. When he was 16, our father insisted on helping him change the spark plugs in his first car, and insisted he use a torque wrench to do it. He didn’t want to because the car had an aluminum head and was quite old, and he was more comfortable going by feel. Our dad put a torque wrench to it anyhow and tore the threads right out of that head. I wasn’t home at the time, so he had a friend of mine install a different spark plug and Heli-Coil for him.
I think the reason many of the blown out spark plugs we hear about are on Fords is because the Triton engines are notorious for it due to their rather shallow plug bungs. Not all of them have been Fords, though. Remember that Toyota (Matrix, I think) the dealership replaced the entire engine in over this?
Like Mike, I am a believer in anti-seize compound, as well as dielectric grease on the wires. Both make future disassembly go easier.