Thing is, if you don't want to run around aimless all the time, you will need the compass. Take Oblivion as example, where you just don't get good information about where exactly your target is, so you need to use the compass to actually find the place / person you are searching for. No clue if Skyrim will make that better... but Fallout 3 had the same problem. Hell, even New Vegas suffered from it in a lot cases. Other non-Bethesda games have exactly the same problem. You get so little or just bad information, that a quest compass is a blessing, not a curse.