Good question. Perhaps web forms are thought of as a kind of CAPTCHA, the idea being that any ol' bot can send e-mail, but it takes a human -- or a bot specific

Good question. Perhaps web forms are thought of as a kind of CAPTCHA, the idea being that any ol' bot can send e-mail, but it takes a human -- or a bot specifically written for the site by a human -- to fill out a form. Note: I'm not endorsing this thought; I'm just trying to get inside the heads of the people who make these awful things. EDIT: Another possibility is that they want a way to easily tell how to route a communication from a customer. And web forms can contain those menus that tell the reason for the communication. (Tragically, those menus rarely work for me; my reason is not usually not on the list.)