The interesting thing about this position is that if you can't seem to see your way thru to taking something literally, You are still faced with figuring out what it alludes to or what it is a metaphor of...
Many people fall into this trend and when claiming metaphor or allegory, they then drop the issue as unimportant...We should by 'searching the scriptures' be able to figure out what those allegories allude to...
All thru out history, the means has been there to mark or brand a person with the Mark of the Beast and has always been relevant as the bible describes it...
I expressed earlier that you need the lower, more obvious, i.e., literal meanings figured out before you go for higher, metaphorical meanings, or you will come a cropper theologically, in my opinion.