Your cars owners manual may have the replacement intervals, or there may be a separate service booklet that shows the intervals.
A clogged filter can very well affect driveability; starting, acceleration, hesitation, stalling.
I always felt it is good maintenance to change the filter as recommended by MB,
For my MB it is every 4 years or 60K miles.
Do a search on the tech forum for `fuel filter changing` may come acoss a few tips - like cutting off old line clamps and purchasing new screw on fuel clamps. some cars use union nuts and you need to replace the copper washers - ask dealer for your model.
On MB cars the fuel filter is usually located a foot or so from the gas tank.
Best to use an OEM filter, high performance may simply refer to particulate filtering hole size as opposed to car speed.