I would say at this point, steam gauges are not critical if you fully expect to build your 1500 hours in a glass plane, and then fly a glass RJ.

So if your school uses glass ASEL and you expect to work there as a CFI and then go to a regional, you probably don't need steam gauges.

But if there's any real chance that you'll fly steam while time building, or do 91/135 instead of regionals, you had probably better learn steam from the start.

A glass trained pilot can get in real trouble if things go wrong with steam gauges. It's easier to go from steam to glass.