Why should I use Visual Studio service references over svcutil?

Question

So it seems like I have a couple of major options when getting WCF service proxy code into a project in Visual Studio:

1. Use Visual Studio's built-in tooling for Service References

2. Use a simple svcutil command, something like svcutil http://[my endpoint] /namespace:[my namespace] /noconfig (since I use some fairly standard bindings across projects), and drag the resulting file into my project (or upgrade in place).

To be clear, option 2 feels like the best one, albiet with no built-in tooling for updating. But the Service Reference dialog generates like a zillion files. Is there any obscure benefit to VS Service References that I'm missing?

Answer 1

Same reason why you build a .net project with VS and not calling the compiler by hand from command line. The I of IDE stands for Integrated, it does things for you so you do not need to do those things manually from many separated places and procedures.

There is usually a way to do many of those things by hand or with a text editor and command prompt but lets be productive :-)

Answer 2

If you also own the service, I'd say don't use either one. Instead, break up your contracts, entities, and client proxies into different assemblies that you can use both on the service and the client.

Kinda like described in WCF The Manual Way... The Right Way.