@terb and @Lanny both have a lot of experience and they’re probably right. I don’t have nearly their experience and I’m probably wrong, but I do have the same drive to have the fretboard memorized.
For me, I think it has more to do with looking at all the things I can’t do and thinking, "well, at least I can memorize the fretboard. I figure as my skills increase in other areas, I probably won’t worry about it so much. Just being confident in what I have memorized and knowing how to find the notes I don’t have memorized.
If you already have the stuff memorized from the course (open strings, using octaves to find notes, memorizing the E, A, and D string notes at frets 3, 5, and 7, understanding the B/C, E/F relationship, and being able to say A-G both backward and forward) then you can find the notes when you need them.
I hate doing rote memorization. I need context to cement things in my memory. So what I do is take the time to learn the notes for whatever I’m playing in addition to learning the tablature. That way, with each new song I’m memorizing more of the fretboard.
If you want more, take a look at this thread… I really thought I was doing something! They are talking about a lot of different relationships between notes on the fretboard.