It would bug me no end to have papers that were never transferred--I try to get mine done within a couple months of purchasing the horse--I figure it's cheaper to do them right away than to set them aside & forget about them & end up paying a late fee. The other thing is, I always think that if something should happen--say house burns down--if the papers are in my name it's simple enough to replace them. If the papers haven't been transferred I would then have to go back to the seller & have them order replacement papers and provide me with another transfer. Hopefully such a thing will never happen, but if it did, that would be just too much hassle.
But, I know plenty of people that don't bother to transfer papers. Often they just want a pet & don't care at all about papers. If they don't show and don't breed, then papers aren't worth the money it takes to transfer them. I know one person that is just tickled to have her first ever purebred, registered horse, and yet she has never transferred his papers. Actually she hasn't even picked up the papers from the seller. Horse was bought on payments, taken home right away, final payment was dropped off in mailbox--seller asked for her address to mail the papers and she said oh that's okay, she'd stop & pick them up one day. Never has. I know the seller & he commented one day that he hd never seen anyone so thrilled to have a registered horse and yet not want to even pick up the papers. Weird to me too--I'd sure want to have them in my possession. But this person doesn't show or breed & doesn't have a lot of money, so probably isn't interested in spending the money just to have the papers in her name.
I do think more people would transfer the papers if the registries didn't require a membership to do the work. Same with bringing a horse permanent. With AMHR for instance, how is it worth it to a pet owner to pay $65 (or $76 for us here in Canada) in order to spend the $5 it takes to bring their horse permanent? If they could pay a $10 or $15 non-member fee, more would surely bring their horses permanent, and if a $15 transfer cost $25 or $30 for a non-member, more would probably pay that too.