漢字 is extremely useful, I find.
If it were exempt from the Japanese language, I believe adding spaces in sentences would be necessary, otherwise reading any document in ふりがな would be a nightmare.
While many claim that the language is harder to learn because of 漢字, I think they're not learning it with the correct perspective. Each 漢字 is like the equivalent of a word (sometimes two or more words), and if you look at it like that, it's just like opening the dictionary every day and picking out five words in English to learn -- then using them in a sentence.
If you do that with 漢字 (plus stroke excercises), it's a path to success. Great language and a great writing system, me thinks.
