Yeah, mine doesn't cover the chrome either, and it's fine.

I had no film on my driving lamps for awhile, and replaced the driver's side one twice when it took rocks clear through the lens. So now they have film on them

 

I know this thread started out with lights, but I'm looking into this same issue for Cab and trying to figure out what to cover? Obviously the hood is in but how far up? The lights are in thanks to your comments above and the chrome is out. What about the bumper and mirrors? It looks like the sides are pretty well protected from the tires throwing up things, but what about the quarter panels & doors?

 

Most of us have 18 inches of the bonnet covered. That will protect you for a very great majority of the debris that will hit it.

The bumper is essential to cover. The MINI gets a lot of stuff kicked back onto the bumper.

Mirrors... that's up to you. I had the mirror caps covered for about a year. The other MINI's caps still looked great (with no clearbra protection), so I decided to take the film off my mirror caps on the CR Cooper. The risk of damage there is so minimal that I prefer that risk over the extra care required to keep the wax buildup off the edge of the film.

Quarter panels ? I think you mean the A-panels. But either way... no, not necessary.

Doors ? Only the very edge if you want. I have the edges of the doors protected but I'm thinking about taking that off too (same reason as I took it off the mirrors).