Eyelets in a rim are so much nicer when building or truing a wheel because they reduce the friction between the rim and the spoke nipple and you can closer feel the "real" tension in the spoke and not just friction. When I designed some rims for Weinman, the wall thicker of the rim had to be thicker for non eyeletted rims.

The first wheel I ever built was a 700C Weinman Concave. That rim was a benchmark in its day.

Pip