• Doing any type of analysis on the data within NetSuite becomes a challenge
• Saved Searches and Reports need to be scheduled for them to actually work
• If you sync data to any other system it might be too slow, or large data updates can create a backlog blocking more recent deltas
• Data updates and data management is a job in itself
I suppose it works, but it just makes all related operations so much more difficult and time consuming (Cycle Counts/Physical Inventories, Supply/Demand Planning, Pricing, Promotions, etc.).
The only reason there were so many items is the requirements were for pricing, costing, and quality/specifications at the individual item level. This is still something that cannot be achieved with serial numbers, and where work-arounds using serials could make certain scenarios possible - they wouldn't be complete or scalable.