What’s the deal with baby proofing?

So since we've moved in the new house, will be two months at the end of the month, I haven't had a chance to properly baby proof the house. My main concerns have been with the outlets, the gas stove, and the stairs. I haven't been too quick about getting outlet covers, because , one I'm going to need a million of them, and two, I think Devin is old and wise enough to leave them alone now, but I definitely want to get them before Alyssa starts crawling around. But with all the scares with carbon monoxide, especially because this is the first time I'm dealing with a gas stove, my biggest fear is Devin will turn those knobs like he is pretending he is flying a space ship, and leave the gas leaking in the house. And since it's pretty much odorless, at least that's what I've read, we probably won't know it's leaked much until it's too late. So I ran out and got the knob covers for the stove which fit over the knobs, and lock, so the children have to press the button to open the flip top and reveal the knob underneath. WELL, Devin was never interested in the stove, for the going on two months we've been here. But, it's funny, he didn't start becoming curious about them, until I put the knob covers on them! "What's this mommy? Why did you put these on here?" And he's already trying to figure out how to open them up and every time I open them up to cook, he's looking over my arm trying to see how I'm doing, and asking me why I put them there. So it seems as though I could've shot myself in the foot with this one…I really believe it's the whole "forbidden fruit" syndrome; basically wanting to mess with something that he can't mess with ultimately, because I've "mess-proofed" it. So now, he pays attention to it way more than he did when the knobs were naked. So, I'm wondering if baby proofing is really the best thing. Does it allow them to notice things that are instantly not accessible and make them wonder why they aren't accessible? Then you have to worry about when they go to other people's homes, and if they aren't baby proofed, then you have to watch them closely because they won't know how to deal with things correctly at non-baby proofed homes. So I'm not sure how I'm going to handle baby proofing this second go round. But it does have me wondering about the validity of the whole ritual….