That did happen in earlier versions, Mark, because you were not able to
destroy the reference to the implicit Recordset variable. Have not seen the
problem in recent versions though.
The example was chosen because the reference contains 3 dots. Each one
requires Access to resolve it, so they act like little speed-bumps.
Of course, there are reasons other than performance that you may want to use
a With block. Here is an example that I use frequently in forms where we
offer lots of options for filtering, show/hide them as appropriate, and then
have to build up the filter string:
With Me.txtFilterSurname
If .Visible And .Enabled And Not IsNull(.Value) Then
'do something
End If
End With