Such artistically valuable ones like those code wheels you have mentioned are much nicer then other forms of copy protections (like looking up words in the manual).
They are nice for nostalgic reasons. But if you HAVE to use them they can be a pain. Imagine nowadays playing those games on your phone on the bus.
Also generally I am very against DRM in all forms although those above are very mild variants.
And seeing those wheels… anyone else saw the Dial-An-Interview from Upcoming book: "The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games"?
