[Zubersoft]

You are correct - eop is not required and actually has no impact. It is effectively ignored. The only thing sop does is optionally put a bolded label above the section. In general, I think the purpose of sop/eop is to organize sections of the page, so it seems like it would be better to mark the end of the part, but if it creates more work for you, you can certainly leave it out. The same is true for eov. 

Mike