Personally, I think it's a far better way to learn geometry. And a little less frustrating. Some are a bit tricky, though. The student is using logic, and deductive reasoning, to solve a problem, rather than just formally doing a proof. I only mean to offer an opinion that may be different from current popular math teaching ideology.
Proofs also teach the discipline of having a supporting reason for every statement.
A geometric proof is the concrete practice of an abstract thought process. Proof-writing is the process of writing mathematical thought and it does force one to concentrate on the particulars of your reasoning. I don't doubt that one can learn reasoning and geometry in a number of different ways, but it is often to the student's disadvantage to abandon the more challenging path. They just finished up doing some proofs and I know it has helped her reasoning processes. I don't know what we would do.