The current mantra that point-to-point is more realistic suffers from a fatal flaw: it is only realistic if the prototype is at most .5 miles long (that's about how long a mainline lucky people can fit, much less for most people, especially in the larger scales).
If you like switching between industries that are next door to one another, that's fine. But if you want trains to run any distance at all, loops are unavoidable.
