A lot of people in this space do take out quality time to read whitepapers to at least understanding what they're putting their money into. Unfortunately, this in itself doesn't imply it's a prerequisite for investing in a great project. This is because whitepapers are fast becoming nicely written fancy documents with no real intent of achieving
Well, most people would say that it's not that important to read, especially if you are only a bounty hunter, where after one month or so, success or failure, you can just leave and then find another one. However, that's not the case for other people who doesn't just join in the bounties, but for those who are investing in them, and actually use their money or assets, I think, reading about the white paper is one of the least you can do in order to check if the project really has a potential to grow. At least, even if the project fails, you can't regret that you didn't even do some prep work.