I think the beauty of arcade goes very well with pinball. They are both boxes full of lamps that could keep me busy as a kid for hours on end, even if I didn't have any quarters left! Althoug my love is definitely with pinball because of the randomness of the silver ball, I sometimes like watching arcade for nostalic reasons. My favourite games are Pacman, Track n Field, Galaga and Donkey Kong.
But what's great about arcade is that you can have one cabinet with all the games in it! That doesn't take up much space at all! Granted, having the orginal Galaga or Pacman cabinet is very cool, but MAME is a perfect excuse if you don't have so much space in your gameroom.
So Is arcade the "dark side"? No. But don't forget that theres only one silver ball to rule em all!