Indeed, I've always been insanely over protective of data (since I had a hard drive crash in the 90's take out an essay I was writing for school) but for some reason I never applied that to my phone.

Then my phone and wallet got stolen and it was a massive mess as it had access to just about all my critical stuff (dropbox, google apps, email accounts etc) and I had no remote wipe and no password on it (yeah I know).

Now I have both remote wipe, a strong password and very little sensitive data on my new phone, far too easy to lose the keys to the kingdom.

If you were to encrypt your phone, you'd not have to worry about it being stolen with sensitive data on it.

If you are using remote wipe without encryption, all the thief needs to do is drop it in a foil bag.

Only if the phone was off when it was stolen, or it was on, and you absolutely trust the security of the screen lock, which I'd be wary of.