Do you really need to spend any of your valuable time learning guitar scales and theory?
The argument that a guitarists will use to not learn any type of theory is that they will be in danger of losing there originality. They wont be able to be or sound like themselves, they will be caught up and constrained within the confines of rules and regulations. The only problem with that kind of thinking is that you are in danger of not growing and progressing as a musician.
All basic lead guitar instruction courses at the root level will tell you to learn chords, scales and arpeggios because they know that you will gain a greater understanding of how the music process inter-grates and works together, you will expand your playing with new possibilities and concepts, rather than the reverse.
And here is the most important factor. A lot of self taught musicians tend to suffer from episodes of self doubt because of not knowing what to play, which in turn can breed insecurities and lack of self confidence in your playing.
Knowledge is power as they say, so if you want to advance your guitar playing to expert status as a lead guitar improviser or if you want to...