I never bother with stand offs, if I am cutting freehand I drag the torch on both thin and thick material but if I use a guide/template on thick stuff I run the edge of the nozzle on the corner of the guide which gives me about 1mm clearance from the material.
I havent used it much, but I tend to hover the cutter over the work rather than drag cut mainly because i wasnt sure if i was supposed to or not, it seemed to give a better cut a few mm away anyway and i was hoping the tips might last longer that way. I will try some drag cut with it now though and see how it goes.