That's interesting. I took a lot of pictures in 2017, which was my first total eclipse, and don't regret it all. I kind of had a vision in mind for the picture and it came out perfect. (Looking through a telephoto lens at the sun is probably the least interesting picture. I took a wide shot with the corona clearly visible and the rest of the scenery and the eclipsegoers on the ground. I'd like to get 4 minutes worth of star trails sometime, but I'm too lazy to bring my tripod this year. Maybe next time. It's going to be cloudy anyway.)
If you had a camera set up pointed at the sun, automatically snapping photos every so many seconds — go for it. You can forget abut the camera and enjoy the event.