the relevance of suffix rules, given pattern rules

[Robert P. J. Day]

  (one of probably several newbie-level questions trying to 
clarify some issues regarding gnu make.)

  is there any value to defining your own suffix rules give that
pattern rules subsume suffix rules?  i mean, apart from backward
compatibility, if i'm starting a completely new project, and can
set it up the way i want, is there any reason *not* to use pattern
rules exclusively, and just undefine all of the suffix rules with

.SUFFIXES:

just to make sure i have no unexpected implicit rules?

  IOW, given that pattern rules exist, is there any point to 
using the older and simpler suffix rules at all?

rday