[bobbyBill]

Even without shared working directories, with the current branch as a dir workflow, you have no easy way to see what branches you have, how they relate, nor to express how they should relate (which one should follow which other one). For instance, this means that if I open a new branch on my public repository, there's no automated way for people pulling from my older branch to notice that fact. To me, it is a more compelling but rarely stated argument for in-vcs branching.