Generally speaking gloves are a waste. They end up hurting my hands more than they help.

That said, I was at the Northeast Regionals yesterday and half the competitors were wearing gloves for at least parts of the last two workouts. And several of them (including Austin Malleolo who finished fifth) badly burned their hands doing the handstand walk. I'm talking second degree burns.

So you can't say gloves never have their place, but that building a callous and/or proper hand maintenance is a better option.