Assuming relatively standard media (anything from Canon, Canson, Hahnemuhle, Innova, Moab, etc... - the one exception is Epson media on Canon printers (or vice versa)), the manufacturer-supplied profiles tend to be excellent for the newer printers. Of course, neither Canon nor Epson is going to supply profiles for the other guy's printer! There was a point right around the Epson 7800 and the Canon iPF 5100/6100/8100 when the printers got so good and so consistent that canned profiles have become really viable. Around the same time, Lightroom got good at layout and sharpening, which were the other two advantages of RIPs.
At this point, the only real reasons to roll your own profiles or use a RIP (some RIPs, notably ImagePrint, have excellent profile libraries, and others have very good profile creation software, although you still need a spectrophotometer) that I can see are:
1.) You are using some very nonstandard media - I am experimenting with silk printing, and will need to make profiles for that.
2.) You are doing more with layout than trying to print a number of the same size images on a page - Lightroom will print a bunch of stuff the same size, but won't mix and match - (but, even if you are, check out Qimage, it has pretty darned flexible layout, and is much cheaper than any RIP)\
3.) You are using nonstandard inks (the only time the manufacturer will ever give you a profile for nonstandard inks is if you buy the ink and media from the same place).
4.) You have an older printer that manufacturers no longer bother to provide profiles for (iPF 5000).
5.) You are using Epson paper in a Canon printer (or Canon paper in an Epson) - neither manufacturer feels responsible to provide profiles for that combination. Sometimes, you can figure out who actually made the paper (neither Canon nor Epson owns paper mills), and get the profile for an identical paper under another name, though...
Unless you are in one of these situations, download the profile from your paper (or even canvas) manufacturer and try it before going any farther afield.