Writing it tail-recursively forces you to switch from the O(2^n) algorithm (which has two recursive calls; you can't put both into tail position) to a more efficient algorithm. You could also write the more-efficient algorithm without tail recursion, of course.
No, you're not being a n00b. It'll help because the stack usage will grow linearly as opposed to quadratically, as in the case of the naive solution. You'll still overflow the stack without the optimization.
