Flips and Showdowns... good for Cash Games or just for Action Junkies

A flip or a showdown is when players put in an amount of money into the pot, deal out the cards, run the flop turn and river without any more betting rounds.  So basically everyone gets two cards and you run out a normal Texas Holdem hand but there is no more betting, and the winner takes the pot.   You can play any poker game, and turn it into a flip or showdown.  Omaha, Holdem, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Stud, RAZZ, High Card, modified Blackjack, etc... anything will work for a flip or a showdown.

So the question is... do flips or showdowns increase the action in a cash game, or do they just slow the game down?

I have two schools of thought.  One, a flip increases the action in a cash game.  It will distribute funds to tighter players that are peer pressured into "flipping their money", which will increase the action in a cash game because money won is much easier to gamble with than money one worked for.  So with this theory the game is looser and money flows easier because with $140 flips exchanging hands every half hour (7 players in a $20 flip = $140 pot). Plus it breaks up the monotony of the poker grind at a cash table. 

Second school of thought, flips can break a cash game.  Whenever you involve luck into a cash game (more luck than is inherit in poker) people can get even more upset than when they are rivered a few times for a big pot.  For example, one player wins three flips in a row, second player gets frustrated by player ones incredible luck he decieds to up the ante and do $50 or $100 flips instead of the standard $20 flip.  Now the poker game turns into a raffle game and has become quite volatile.  Players that are not intrested in just rolling the dice for their money begin to leave or play other games.  Other players go broke, or one player wins all the chips on the table.  The point being is that you begin to stop playing poker, and begin to just gamble.

Flips and Showdowns... good for cash games if you can keep it under control?  OR is flipping starting down a path that will inevitably lead to straight gambling and no longer playing poker.