I love doing it, but will only do it with women I am in a relationship with. Wouldn't do it with a plate. I personally like it and don't mind the smell really. Now, if the chick just got back from the gym, she needs to go wash up. My lady is religious about "going to the bathroom" before we get settled down. Although, sex can be so spontaneous sometimes, its hard to predict.
Yeah I generally prefer if they do that too but you don't always have that luxury. I've also tried asking if they want to go to the bathroom and wash up before, or if they have recently, and that just kills the vibe a lot of times...
I've had mixed thoughts on the whole thing throughout my life. Like before I became sexually active, I thought it seemed like the hottest thing, because I didn't know about the smell/taste at the time. The first few years of porn I looked at consisted mostly of actual pu$$y closeups and cunnilingus, which now by itself isn't enough of a turn on, and something some people might even find weird.
I had the unfortunate experience of my first few exposures to it being less than great or ideal, which kind of stuck in my head and colored future interactions. Like making out with a somewhat chubbier girl in the backseat of a very hot and stuffy car when I was 17, and she began getting so turned on that without her even taking anything off, the entire car began reeking of fish, to the point where I almost gagged and had to open the windows. Lost my virginity at 18 and didn't get involved with eating out the first couple of times, but went down on a girl while we were both in a bathtub, which wasn't too bad. But the next girl I did it with was not the cleanest and it was kinda rough, but I pushed through it. Being sorta inebriated helps lol.
Today I generally don't eat it unless one of three conditions are met: a) She's super hot b) She's someone I really like and care about, not just some random one timer c) I'm pretty drunk.
Some of my friends swear by it and love eating out girls in general. I even have a friend who ate out a stripper in the backroom of a strip club, and didn't even get anything in return... aside from maybe some STD.
Then again I have another friend from rural Kentucky who is more conservative/traditional and he never goes down on women, yet he's had a fair amount of girlfriends, and his current one has stuck with him faithfully for five years, now gettting engaged, despite it. So I guess it's not mandatory for everyone.