Walls and Ceilings - Why Use Tape? (Yes, Dumb Question)

OK - I'll just start right off by saying I know this is a dumb question. However, I seem to be experiencing a rather common problem when I read other posts on this forum while I attempt to finish my basement.

After applying my first coat of dry wall mud, then the tape coat, I was feeling rather cocky about how easy the whole drywalling process seemed. But after adding the fill coat, my joy changed to a worried look when I saw bubbles appearing in the walls where the tape was.

My corners were fine, but two places covering up dry wall seams continued to look bad despite my efforts in applying more mud or cutting out the tape blisters. At 1:00am, I made a desperate decision to rip the tape off the two offending seams - leaving an indentation in the mud where the tape used to be. I then filled in this indentation with an extra coat of mud, smoothed it over, then actually started to admire how much better it looked.

I confessed my sins this morning to a friend also finishing his basement, and then he admitted to doing the same thing. This, of course, goes against any procedure ever taught on drywalling, and I'm sure my friend and I will one day burn in Drywall Hell. But aside from that, can anyone tell me what the long term consequences will be to those two seams?

Thanks.

The long-term consequence is that you may eventually have the mud chipping out of the joint if one panel flexs while the other is stationary like for instance if you bump a low panel with a piece of furniture. The tape helps tie the adjacent sheets together among other things. I am not a drywall expert, so you may get additional input from the pro's.

Well, as the saying goes, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

Anyone have any opinion on using the adhesive paper tape (i.e., not mesh) with pinholes in it?