Grudgingly agreed - without the CD ROMS, you are flying blind. With them, you are flying murky/confused. It's better than blind.
You might want to look at this site:
alldatadiy.com
Costs you $15 a year per car, it has all the CD rom material legally, and has a TON more information that is not on the CD ROM. And is SEARCHEABLE!
But the CD ROM pages in the PDF files give you the original page layout, which is easier to use and understand.
I use both the alldatadiy.com site and the CDROM.
Don't expect KIA quality from those CD ROMS, though. Expect YUGO quality!
(I know, that was harsh...)