I've already finished this tutorial, but I wanted to ask a question and it felt like this was the best video I could relate it to.
How often can we get away with clipping separate objects into one another? Before i took this online class i thought that clipping objects into one another was a cheap tactic to get detail.
Is this practice okay when creating models for animations and/or game development?
If a cheap tactic works well and doesn't sacrifice quality, use it! In this case, it's totally acceptable as long as you use normal maps or a bevel to hide the harsh transition between the two surfaces, and as long as that part of the object isn't going to deform in a weird way when animated (for characters and soft, bendable surfaces).