Water softener resin clean necessary?

Hi,

I've had a water softener for about 4 years now (water2buy). I remember about a couple years ago I used the resin cleaner solution as directed and it blocked my pipe coming out the water softener. Luckily it was the first bend it got stuck in and I disconnected and took it out. It's worked fine since then.

Now I noticed that the main unit was frozen and salt bridging occurred. Have taken out all the granules and given it a manual regen cycle. Tbh I don't want to take the risk of using the resin clean again especially with a child this time. Basically water coming out the taps was reduced drastically because of it. There is no bypass valve.

My question is: is it necessary and how does it affect the longevity?