I was always an avid guy - but you have to copy p2 footage into media directories so I end up with 2 copies of master footage (i always keep 2 to have a backup) and then the footage on the media drive (which doesnt count as a master cause its not in the original dir structure). fcp is one step worse - not only do you have to import the footage but it rewraps it to make the files completely different then the originals in terms of format (same quality though of course).
Adobe Premier you just point to a p2 dir or a folder containing many p2 dirs and it finds everything and references it there so you can actually use one of your masters as a working copy - lovely and i didnt realize till i started with premier a few months ago.
My guess is that premier actually was the less developed platform at first so just referenced files where they are to be simpler and now its working out for them.