Shelf Liner: Old School?

We live in a pretty new apartment. I don't think we are the first to live here, but we are, at worst, probably the third.

Things like the kitchen cabinets are, therefore, pretty new. But, like many rentals, they are pretty cheap. From cleaning out the bottom of them, the laminate on them looks as though it is going to peel off, which leads me to wonder: should I have lined them with "shelf paper"? Or is this an anachronistic practice?

When I got my first apartment, more than 20 years ago, one of the first things anyone did was run down to the hardware store and buy some shelf liner. It was one of the ways of making the apartment your own (did you favor the cabbage rose pattern? or were you more of a geometric patter person?) Often this was necessary because the bottom of the cabinets was, well, gross. Other times you were just trying to cover the lining that was there before you.

As I have lived in newer and progressively nicer places, this habit has fallen away. Was it me? Or do people just not do this anymore in general?