Why not have ATC? Failing that just use CTAF?
Having learned to fly in the USA, I agree with that sentiment. But for some reason CTAF doesn't seem to work in Europe.
One reason might be the different ownership structure of small airfields. In the US, as I understand, it's the local government or something that lays down the runways and everything, the FAA which inspects and monitors the place, but a number of different FBOs are established who provide various services like fuel. As such, the "owner" of the airfield is not around all day but lets the pilots and the FBOs sort it out amongst themselves. And the FBOs really don't care what happens in the air.
In Europe, most small airfields are privately owned and the owner is also the operator. And that operator wants to exert some measure of control over the field, including the circuit (noise abatement being a much more important issue here). So the operator at a very minimum tries to provide an A/G service. And since a lot of pilots are hesitant to do *anything* without permission of the radio man, even A/G sometimes gets pushed into an ATC-like role, giving startup permissions and so forth.
I have noticed that the simple fact that there's an A/G service on the frequency influences the way pilots behave. With a CTAF service I regularly got into a plain english conversation with the other pilot (also doing circuits) as to where he was, what his intentions were and how we could provide separation amongst ourselves. But with an A/G service that doesn't seem to happen. Everything flows through the A/G man who doesn't have the authority to do anything about it.