I’ve always made the ‘www.’ work for any site I’ve administered, but they immediately redirect with a 301 to the same url without it. It’s never been necessary, and I’ve always found it an eyesore.

Start with reading the documentation that explains this config:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1$1 [R=301,L]