Direct control allows for much greater control on where you move in the enviroment, which usually means you get where you want to, and faster. It's also much better for immersion into the world.
Non-direct control is only suitable for selecting and moving multiple objects, such as in a RTS. Given the choice between the two, I don't know anyone who uses non-direct mouse controlled movement in World of Warcraft.
Getting stuck on objects isn't always the games fault, on some games it definitely is, but there are horrible implementations of non-direct control, I've heard The Moment of Silence isn't too good in this regard. A lot of games that don't have any platforming gameplay, like Beyond Good and Evil, don't allow you to walk off cliffs. I don't really have a problem with that, in the games I have played, you must really be distracted before you're not able to see a cliff edge.
There are games that use a mouse for direct control over movement, one good example is Diablo.
I find that journeys using direct control are less anoying than ones using non-direct control, watching the computer control a character to a place, doesn't seem like playing to me. When all I'm doing is watching a game, then I start to question whether it's a game at all. Of course being as lazy as the next person I like the shortcuts where you can teleport to place where appropriate.
I find point-and-click games as easy to control as direct control games, so really it's not about focusing on higher "officer" pursuits, compared to lower "grunt" simple tasks.
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