Awnings, are they more cumbersome than useful?

[StarryStarryNight]

Ok, we bought the van (a ford transit autosleepers conversion) and it came with an Awning. Without instructions and too many metal tubes, it took us half a day to erect this concotion in the garden. I already dread taking it down. Is it useful?
We are going to spend maybe just a night, possibly 3-4 nights in each place, planning to cover 3.000 miles in 5 weeks.... Do we need an awning??

from recal, an awning made a LOT of difference to our caravan holidays when I was a kid, and my parents got very adept at getting it up and down fast. It doubles the room you have.

Speaking from experience - an awning is very useful for keeping your space on the campsite when you go away for the day

we have an awning and it is certainly very useful in terms of space, and as purplefrog says, saving your space!!
If you find the one you have tricky there are plenty of drive away awnings around at the moment, we have one which is like a tunnel tent, so a more modern easier to put up version