Mecanim: Baked transforms in animation or No?

Does anyone know which is the "better practice" ? The default demos for character movement all come with animations that have baked transforms... for example like a Run Cycle animation already has a transform in the Z direction, so there's no need to code a transform.position * speed * time.deltatime thingy... (I'm not a programmer, I'm an artist)... all you need to do is Call or Play the anim. and the model will "move forward" since it's forward movement is baked into the animation clip.

And I hate it.

I keep feeling like that's such a terrible way to setup character controls, results in clunky, not-fluid controls, especially for platforming games where character control has to be extremely precise (or even like in a brawler in the likes of Super Smash Bros.)

I haven't had enough opportunities to test and compare what method is better, neither dig too deep into Mecanim yet, but as far as creating the most precise and most fluid and responsive/twitch-sensitive character control+animation...

What is better?

1) having a Run Cycle animation with baked-in transforms (like each step actually moves the model forward)

2) or is it better to create a Run Cycle that runs on the spot (no baked transforms) and then move the character through code like transform.position * speed......

Both ways have it's pros and cons, but ultimately I want the best solution for creating fluid and precise character control, where I can skip/interrupt animations and movement directions, the feel of Super Meat Boy, Ori & Blind Forest, Super Mario Galaxy, Guild Wars 2, Minecraft lol... I think the industry term is called a "roller ball design" ? But it's not Unity's roller ball control demo, that's a different kind of roller ball reference.