I decided to call SRAM tech department and get the official word since this seems to be such a torn subject. The Tech told me that the barrel adjuster should never be used to compensate for pad wear. That is what the red adjuster knobs are for, which I think we all knew. He said the barrel adjuster was simply to take slack out of the cable. So I asked if a person was good enough and they could get the slack removed before they tightened down the Allen bolt then a person wouldn't need the barrel adjusters right? He answered correct. And I said the barrel adjuster can probably also be used to take slack out as the cable stretches right? He answered correct. So bottom line is they are not a necessary ingredient if you are good enough with your cable adjustment that you can get all the slack out before you tighten the bolt down. Hopefully this will answer a lot of questions since there's a lot of debate here.