When I'm king, any appliance that uses water will have a drain beneath it. Pan, second-best....at least some fallback. They all leak sooner or later. ALL!

Whether it looks tacky and is in the way depends on the pan you purchased and how it's installed.

Want it to look real good you can spend the money and have a tiled enclosure built with a drain.

We put in a Mustee Durapan with a removable front dam. The repair guy who was at our house thought it was great as the cheap plastic pans can easily get crushed when trying to move a 200 to 300 lb appliance in place or out for repair.

When I'm king, any appliance that uses water will have a drain beneath it.Asolo, I pronounce you King! Hey, I went to look under our washer, and there is still no pan!

Ours looks fine--it was fabricated out of sheet metal and has about a 2" lip. Probably prefer not to have it for aesthetics, but it's pretty small and barely noticeable. And certainly good protection against the worst.

I found a drain pan that actually looks good. Bought a stainless steel pan from Killarney Metals (with link). Put it under my Whirlpool Duet and it kind of enhances my laundry room. Does take some additional room but the protection is worth it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Killarney Metals Whirlpool Drain Pan