That "dumb always online requirement" is the reason we can go join games and not have to deal with every one running around with 3 socket 1 million dps weapons that do 10 ias.
Yea it has its inconvienences to like when the servers go down, or more recently the ddos attacks. But Il take that any day over the rampant modding and duping that goes on in the console versions.
And while not everybody mods, everybody that plays online dupes. Even if they don't realize it. Every time you trade with someone you don't know, its 99% probable the piece you are getting has been duped. If not by the person you are trading with, then by the person he traded with for it, or the person before him. I can only wonder how many duped wand of wohs and furnaces are spreading like wildfire on XBL and PSN.