The forces involved can be estimated ahead of time with simple math. It's easy to verify stepper motor holding torque with a common kitchen scale. Cutting forces can be estimated with readily-available calculators online.
The closed loop functionality will never come into play with properly sized motors, though.
If the machine gets to the point where the closed loop function is trying to make up for lost steps, it’s almost certainly because something has gone wrong (crashed machine into workpiece, for example). At that point, it’s actually better to halt the machine and alert the operator, which is what a lot of people end up using closed loop stepper feedback for.
New Trinamic stepper drivers have some built in functionality to detect stalled steppers, which can be used for the same effect.
Closed loop steppers definitely aren’t bad, but they’re not a must-have for hobby machines.
There's also systems with steppers and encoders.
A common issue though is that the steppers are driven at too low of a voltage. You also want the right kind of driver that PWMs a high enough voltage to maintain the current at speed. That's because as the speed goes up the motor has higher back-EMF voltage that the driver needs to overcome. Constant voltage drive really suffers as the motor speeds up.
But sure, DC brushless + servos are nice, more expensive, and require more expensive controllers.