Why is require_once so bad to use?

if (!defined('MyIncludeName')) {
    require('MyIncludeName');
    define('MyIncludeName', 1);
}

<?php
// /home/fbarnes/phpperf/hdr0.php
require_once "../phpperf/common_hdr.php";

?>

for i in /home/fbarnes/phpperf/hdr{00..99}.php; do
  echo "<?php
// $i" > $i
  cat helper.php >> $i;
done

<?php

// Load all of the php hdrs that were created previously
for($i=0; $i < 100; $i++)
{
  require_once "/home/fbarnes/phpperf/hdr$i.php";
}

// Read the /proc file system to get some simple stats
$pid = getmypid();
$fp = fopen("/proc/$pid/stat", "r");
$line = fread($fp, 2048);
$array = split(" ", $line);

// write out the statistics; on RedHat 4.5 w/ kernel 2.6.9
// 14 is user jiffies; 15 is system jiffies
$cntr = 0;
foreach($array as $elem)
{
  $cntr++;
  echo "stat[$cntr]: $elemn";
}
fclose($fp);

?>

<?php
// /home/fbarnes/phpperf/h/hdr0.php
if(!defined('CommonHdr'))
{
  require "../phpperf/common_hdr.php";
  define('CommonHdr', 1);
}

?>

time(NULL)                              = 1223772434
lstat64("/home", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes/phpperf", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes/phpperf/h", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=270336, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes/phpperf/h/hdr0.php", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=88, ...}) = 0
time(NULL)                              = 1223772434
open("/home/fbarnes/phpperf/h/hdr0.php", O_RDONLY) = 3

time(NULL)                              = 1223772905
lstat64("/home", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes/phpperf", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes/phpperf/h", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=270336, ...}) = 0
lstat64("/home/fbarnes/phpperf/h/hdr0.php", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=146, ...}) = 0
time(NULL)                              = 1223772905
open("/home/fbarnes/phpperf/h/hdr0.php", O_RDONLY) = 3

[fbarnes@myhost phpperf]$ wc -l strace_1000r.out strace_1000ro.out
  190709 strace_1000r.out
  210707 strace_1000ro.out
  401416 total

[fbarnes@myhost phpperf]$ grep -c time strace_1000r.out strace_1000ro.out
strace_1000r.out:20009
strace_1000ro.out:30008

[fbarnes@myhost phpperf]$ grep -c getcwd strace_1000r.out strace_1000ro.out
strace_1000r.out:5
strace_1000ro.out:10004

[fbarnes@myhost phpperf]$ wc -l strace_1000r.out strace_1000ro.out
  190705 strace_1000r.out
  200705 strace_1000ro.out
  391410 total
[fbarnes@myhost phpperf]$ grep -c time strace_1000r.out strace_1000ro.out
strace_1000r.out:20008
strace_1000ro.out:30008