to 'ku or not to 'ku - 5-7-5 discussion

I think the seasonal can be implied, or you can be as obvious as you wish. But is it necessary? I learned Haiku from some folks who had been doing it a long time, not Japanese writers, but those who probably came closest to emulating the Japanese form, and then had to defend how I wrote the form and gave up after a while, because discussing haiku is like discussing politics or religion. Now I don't care what folks say about how I write my version of the form.