Live poker is fairly boring, hence why there is/can be a straddle. It helps make things more exciting and puts more "gambolllllllll" into the game. Ehhh, my casino sucks though they make a straddle as a blind bet, aka you cannot reopen the action when it gets back to you. People still do it though, which I love very much.
Straddles tend to help stimulate action, the thing is online you get so many hands in and the action is already very fast and interesting, that a straddle is not really needed imo.
What I would prefer online are antes, antes already occur on UB on some tables at 50NL+, which I think is just awesome.
Im going to drink alot now, future posts may or may not be coherent.