Stitch regulators haven't been around THAT long. I see they are still optional on many long arm machines. They do help some quilters do a better job of FMQ. The guild members that have the regulator for their sewing machines have nothing but problems and most don't use them anymore.
I was told you don't have to drop the feed dogs for FMQ but it will do damage to your machine after a while because setting the stitch length to 0 means the feed dogs don't move, something about that part.