Whether you want it or not, you'll end up encountering them, not necessarily with enough context to tell you what they are. Example from regular news: 1000軒停電.1000世帯停電.1000戸停電.(and they all point to something slightly different)

Of course, it depends what you use Japanese for.

Yes, it does depend. My recommendation would still be to follow up with what I said and master the common ones used for basic conversation first. Then work on the rarer ones that pop up in the news or when you're renting apartments or whatever.