You are right.
My thinking is that, especially for beginners, it's too easy to get into a tight write-compile-debug loop without thinking in broader terms about the problem. It's just an exercise in thinking about the structure of your code.
Also, you can do, or not do, whatever you want :)
I'm not sure I understand - why shouldn't I execute what I wrote? Isn't it like a musician not listening to what is he playing?