A huge disservice is done to students when teachers do not ask for excellence. Ask for mediocrity and you are guilty of dumbing down your class. It is my opinion, even as one who is required to write research papers to pass, that if a book or paper does not include notes it is not scholastic and does not add to the prestige or the reputation of the scholar writing it. Maybe in a general survey text. A secondary work without notes is completely useless in research and cannot be justified as research material.
Lazy students is correct.
I re-emphasize that teachers who give in to students who whine or argue for an easier workload are doing nothing to benefit those students. Now back to the computer side of me. Those of us older than 25 have none to fond memories of working with typewriters and the earliest word processors that had no great notation abilities. In this day and age of Word and Word Perfect, with their highly developed notation capabilities, there is simply no excuse for not using notes in each and every paper turned in. The next time a student gripes about having to include notes you should make it their assignment to type the paper, WITH footnotes, if typewriters still exist.