It can be a serious situation.

It depends upon your market. If it were a handheld calculator, the user could simply turn it on and off.

Now consider a security alarm system at a major museum. If power glitches the alarm until someone resets it the following morning... who should pay the stolen million dollar paintings?

The decision should be approached as a risk assessment decision. Factors would be things like:
(1) How easy is it for a human to reset it?
(2) Does a human reset diminish the product stature?
(3) How much damage or waste can be done between the glitch and the reset?
(4) How much does protection cost in dollars and board space?

Real life example. One of our prototype "devices" was in a "plane" powered up and doing "its thing". "Something else" had been installed in the bay for that flight and was improperly wired. When it was powered up, we got smacked and even though we were totally within spec, the unusual situation terminated access to our unit for the flight.

While we were in the clear, we could have done a better job. We added the appropriate protection to the production version and have had no problems. No one could have predicted a technician's wiring mistake but it didn't cost us much to improve the product and make the customer happier.

-Jay C. Box