When Koko was 9 month old she had to spend 12 weeks in a crate. She had double knee surgery and each knee had a 6 week recovery time.The only time she was out was to go out for her business. The last 2 weeks of of her recovery she could come and go when we were home. She started coming out when she could.

After this long nonstop crate tour was over she was ready to stay out. She has been out for over 2 years and has free roam without incident. We are lucky that most of the time weather permitting we leave her on our 800 sq ft covered front porch. It has a gate to keep her in and she is free to run back and forth chasing squirrels. When we leave her in we restrict her to the LR, DR and kitchen. I usually will not leave her over about 4-5 hours unattended. So far she has not missed her crate and she is not chewing on anything but her toys. When she was around 6 months she chewed everything, the worst being the dining room rug. She has since grown out of this.

If your dog is comfortable in her crate I would leave well enough alone.
In our case Koko was ready to stay out and has not been destructive when left alone.