Should I Just Give In and Logon with a Microsoft Account?

I've always logged in with a local account and just sign in to individual apps w/my MS account. With 8.1, my MS account is often "forgotten" by various apps, and I'm prompted to switch my local login to a MS account. I just sign into that app again, but this has gotten old.

I hate the thought of having to use an MS account, but MS's frequent pestering is kinda doing what they intended - wearing me down to where I'm about to give in.

Should I? Is it that bad? Or should I continue to fight the good fight?

I can't advise you what to do.
That is up to you.

But, I have a Microsoft account & have had no problems.

It makes reinstalling my OS easy.

I use one, it makes life simple for me. My Microsoft Live ID is used for more than just my Windows log in though. As David said, if you have the Sync turned on reinstalls are easier as far as customization and metro apps go. I also like syncing my settings acrose the different PC's I use too. You can turn that all off in the Skydrive/Onedrive settings if you wish. The Bing desktop search can be disabled too if you consider that a privacy issue.

I run Win 8.1 on multiple machines using a local account and rarely get asked for my MS account info. SkyDrive was one app I had trouble with since it insisted that I switch over to my MS Account. I found ways around that, SyncDriver for SkyDrive is what I ended up using and it works great.