In all my years of working out at the garage, I don't remember a mechanic reinstalling a tie rod end to the knuckle (or a ball joint for that matter) without checking the alignment of the front. That is not something that you can just eyeball and expect it to be ok. Yeah, if you are lucky enough to get it back together just perfect, you won't need one, and in some cases after it has been put back together the alignment will be fine. But there have been some cases in which it needed a slight adjustment. Remember that when you pull the knuckle from the car, you are loosening quite a few bolts.
Choose to do it however you want to... I'm not getting any money for recommending that you do it my way. This is just my viable advice from my years of experience to make sure that when you get it done that it is done right and that you aren't stuck bringing the car back later.
