Hey CDPRfletcher—
I’m not an expert with MySQL, but I know that strict mode tends to throw more errors where it would ordinarily just throw a warning and keep on moving. If you’re a developer, this can help you isolate problem areas, but otherwise it doesn’t look to offer end users much benefit. Maybe someone more versed in MySQL could provide better insight here. The page in the MySQL docs that explains strict mode is here.
The installation guide for EE1.x used require that your MySQL server must not be running in strict mode, so I’d say you’re safe leaving everything as is.
Kevin