Originally Posted by
kyushuman
Really can't wrap my head around the people here who keep focused on waiting a minute or two for a person to come check the pass (?) as a reason to not get the pass. If it's more expensive, I get it, but the convenience and flexibility can't be beat!
I think that the concern raised by [MENTION=5135]dhuey[/MENTION] is that it may take much longer than "a minute or two" to get through a manned gate during peak times. Heck, it can take more than a minute or two at ordinary times if you're unfortunate enough to reach a manned gate when it's blocked by a cluster of other customers who are trying to deal with the station staff there.
If you ever saw the huge queues at fare adjustment machines and ticket machines at stations like Makuhari Messe on big event days in the days before IC cards you'll know what we're talking about. When stations get super-crowded, you don't want to be one of the people who has to pass through the narrowest bottleneck.