On my Cross Check, which, my mtb aside, is my least aggressive bike, I left the steering tube long. I can raise my bars up nearly level to the seat (for when I am like 100) or I can lower them down to full race position and do this simply by repositioning my spacer stack relative to the bars. Another advantage, on this multipurpose type bike (Surly CC, LHT etc) is that a second stem can be mounted for lights, bags etc.

Of course, you might not want to leave the steering tube that long on a road racer/performance bike but you could leave an extra inch or half inch so you can adjust up and down for long rides, casual or serious group rides. That is one thing I do like about the new bikes with the 1&1/8 steering tubes.