Mash Tun vs. BIAB

I'll post this to the BIAB and General Discussion forums as well, but...

With Brew-in-a-Bag methods these days, is there any real "advantage" or "benefit" to doing more "traditional" all-grain brewing techniques for most beer recipes???  Can't the same things be achieved via BIAB???  As a beginner, BIAB seems really easy, and I'm wondering why I "should" spend more money on buying/building mash tuns, and other equipment.

Thanks for the opinions/input.

Depends on what you mean by traditional. If your comparing a thin metal pot vs. my insulated cooler then perhaps there would be more stirring involved in the pot vs the cooler. If the same temperature were achieved though, then I can so no difference in the beer produced from either method. Though the pot would have the advantage of the heat source and could possible allow for more accurate mash temp, so perhaps BIAB could be better beer with slightly more effort.

As stated in your other post efficiency is the main thing.  You are leaving sugar behind in the bag.  without sparging you are limited in your startling gravities by the pot size.  One of my favorite imperial IPA's uses 20 pounds of grain. That totally fills a 10 gallon cooler grain & water.  One of the nice things about this recipe is that after I have my wort for that I recipe I can get another 4 to 5 gallons of wort for a session beer.  Like pretty much everything there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.  For me the main one is I get to play mad-scientist ;D ;D ;D

BIAB worts generally do not clear as well as a true mash tun converted wort.  Granted you can filter and add finings.