In a perfect world, the dongle works, but when recording in pubs, with kids, wanting to do bits on the laptop in the house as opposed to in the studio, its much more risky.
I am sure you have, but if you read on forums about the biggest problem with dongles it is the risk when moving around(well, apart from the recent iLok problems!!). So this is the legitimate concern of dongle users, not just Steinberg, and as such other companies have addressed those concerns whilst still protecting their IP.