Like you, I started "late" (age 44) at guitar. It was something I had wanted to do since I was a kid, but never got around to for one reason or another.
Whether you "have" to learn to read standard music notation or not depends on what you want to do with the guitar. I learned to read music as a teenager when I took piano lessons. However, I do not find that I "need" it to enjoy playing guitar. You can almost always find tablature for a song you want to learn. Like you, I am "Type A" and at times have felt that I "should" learn every note on the fretboard and how to relate them to standard notation (unlike on a piano, which has a one-for-one mapping to standard notation there are often several places to play any given note on a guitar) but I just don't find that I need it.
If you would get joy from learning it, or if you find that not knowing it is standing between you and something you want to do, then learn it. Otherwise, don't sweat it.
My $.02