I used to stretch all my canvases between 20-30 years ago. Big 6x4 foot ones, linen. Oil paintings. I had lots of gallery shows. I liked doing it back then, but eventually got tired of doing all that large heavy stretching. It was hard on the hands, for one thing. In any case, I moved towards smaller paintings on wood and also sculptures by that time.
Stretching canvases was a sort of zen meditation preparation act for the intense activity of creating art. Nowadays i play music for my creative outlet instead (which I find more relaxing less solitary than painting), and I find my 'zen' connection in doing things like biking and roller skating and long walks.