RE: wing tips!
For medium to high speed cruise, wingtip shape is very important, as the loss of lift can be substantial.
I think on small (RC) sized airplanes ( other than sailplanes and even then the significance is minimal I bet ), the amount of lift lost to the wingtip vortice is small and simplicity in design wins vs the tradeoff in aerodynamic performance.
Anyone want to make that more technical?
Chip