I'm just happy to be amongst a group of people playing and singing and making music together. Some learn their stuff (I know **most** of mine, but there are a few songs that won't 'stick' - mostly 'non-story' songs - which I have to have an aide-memoirs for) and knowing your songs does indeed make the act of performance easier. Some have a safety-net 'just in case', some read every word and chord. Makes no difference AFAIC, just do it the best way you can - but DO IT!

And I don't fall for the 'disrespecting the song' line - the song is shown 'respect' by singing it no matter how it's sung, and the greatest 'disrespect' is to not sing it at all.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.