I had to drive home without a clutch twice. Didn't have any trouble starting it in gear cause the clutch pedal was on the floor
https://ls1tech.com/forums/manual-transmission/256791-2nd-blown-slave-2-days.html. It wasn't as hard as i thought, upshifting or downshifting. It's all math, if you shift at 2000 rpm you will want to let the rpms fall to around 1400 rpm (depending what gear you're in) before you put it in the next gear. If you've had your car long enough you can do the same thing by listening to the engine rpm. The relative change in pitch will be the same no matter what rpm you shift at, that's why it "sounds right".
If you rev match perfectly, as in +-0 rpm, its not bad for the transmission at all. But the rpms won't be perfect. Instead of the synchros having to spin up the weight of the input shaft/clutch disk to the right speed, they have to spin the weight of the whole engine/car until they match. That's why it's so bad for your transmission.