The caching is all tied to performance. Without it Drupal becomes a huge anchor.
Jamie thank you for an excellent description.
You raise an interesting point. Wouldn't you agree that, as this is a well documented flaw during development, Drupal could better handle cache instead of passing it off to the developer who in my experience, doesn't need caching until final testing. Surely it could be a simple core process to empty cache on each save, an automated housekeeping matter? Roger