Why closed loop?

Rant on:

On servo based systems why would you ever want to do closed loop
control through the controller? The step direction solutions: 1)Gecko
reading encoder, driving motor directly -or - 2) Rutex drive reading
encoder and providing +/- 10 volts for servo amp all seem much safer
and easier to implement than someting like EMC with a servo to go
card. Why use software to do something that is available in hardware
at lower cost? The servo to go, closed loop approach, looks like the
worst of all worlds.

Rant off:

Roger S