Bitcoin has checkpoints, albeit much less.
Bitcoin's checkpoints _never_ arbitrate the selection of the best chain. They protect against some silly DOS attacks that will be fixed when we get around to changing how the initial block download works. In the mean time, I had some of my own blocks orphaned by the block at a time checkpoint placement in PPcoin (long before POS was active), this was what actually triggered me to stop mining ppcoin.
I think checkpoints are the only way to launch an alt currency Like PPcoin which has a radical new approach, it's for security
Yes, it's centrally controlled "for your protection" ... ignore the man behind the curtain.
I can buy "launch" but PPcoin has been around for a while now ("PPCoin is the only ALTcoin") and practically all mining on it is PoS mining, so the initial risk of it being massively overpowered should be gone now if it would ever be gone. I'm not arguing that it isn't needed: I'm arguing that with it, PPcoin is just a very inefficiently implemented centralized system, and that the need for it basically disproves that PPCoin currently achieves its goals.