It strips the slime coat off the fish?? I have never, ever heard of that. I read tons of magazines, books, and articles on the net, and never once have I read of this theory. Have you ever seen a surge zone on the reef?? TONS, TONS, TONS of bubbles and I highly doubt the fish are being stripped of their slime coat!
The reason most people don't use the bubblers are because of the salt creep like Ophiura said, that and the fact that 'some' corals are irritated by bubbles being caught underneath them.