Gift cards: Yay or Nay?

I had thought gift-cards made great sense for distance giving, as you may not know the needs and wants of distant friends or relatives. But then I got one this Christmas, quite unexpectedly. I hadn’t shopped for this person because we hadn’t exchanged gifts in many years. My first reaction was to order a gift card of equal value online, and have it delivered to him. But that seemed lame. Same goes for sending a check. If we just exchange gift cards or checks, neither of us gain or lose anything. How do you deal with giving gift cards or money? Am I right that the whole idea has its flaws?