To be fair, one problem I have with not storing the data in a database is the issue of maintainability. Imagine if you only have one script, one database, and one path for the images. That's three pieces to the puzzle instead of two. The more you toss in, the more difficult the system is to maintain when you come back to it later. If you are creating a document management system, you'd probably have many scripts and tables. Adding many paths to store documents in is just adding to the complexity (IMHO).

Cheers,
Ovid