According to the manufactures you can pitch their product straight away into the wort, maybe it should come with a disclaimer saying that may not work and you should make a starter. There’s a nitch, they can sell a starter right along with the yeast.
After looking around this forum it seems people are having similar problems.
Maybe if you actually read those threads where people supposedly had the "similar" problems, you will find that 99% of those folks, either didn't wait 72 hours before declaring their yeast dead, or were using
something other than a hydrometer reading, like the faulty bubbling of an airlock as their means of gauging fermentation. And you may notice that of those who then went back to actually take a hydrometer reading, or came back after 3 days,
a huge majority of those said something akin to "hey I jumped the gun, and worried for nothing...everything's fine."
As to whether or not you believe a starter is necessary...
had you said you made one for each of them, I may have become less skeptical, because you would have employed a method that just about every book and website suggests that you do.
Making a starter first insures that your yeast is still ALIVE and viable before you dump it in your beer. You will be less likely to start one of those "is my yeast dead?" threads that are on here every day. 
You will also ensure that
you have enough yeast usually the tubes and smack packs are a lot less yeast that you really should use for healthy fermentation.
If you look at and use Mr Malty's pitch rate calculator you can see how much yeast you SHOULD be using for the grav of your beer.
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html you will find that
what's in the tubes or smack pack is usually way under what you should be using.
Making a starter also usually means your beer will take off sooner, because the first thing that the little buggers do in the presence of wort (whether in a flask or in a fermenter) is have an orgy to reproduce enough cells to do the job...So it won't take such a long time in the fermenter since they started doing it in the flask.
Additionally it is better for the yeast to consume and reproduce incrementally rather than just dumping them into the fermenter...The yeast will be less stressed out than if you just dump them in.
Stressed out yeast can lead to a lot of off flavors...maybe even (though rare) the dreaded autolysis....Or the curse of 1.030....getting a stuck fermentation because the yeast have bit the dust.
So making a starter proves your yeast is still healthy, allows you to grow enough yeast to do the job, cuts down on lag time, and ensures that you will not get off flavors or stuck ferementations from stressed out yeast.
And while you were looking around, you may have even seen threads where people ask about starters with liquid...
You might have even come upon this.
I just wonder why then on they liquid, Wyeast, smack packages they specifically say "ready to pitch"?
To which the answer is;
Revvy said:
Because a lot of instructions in this hobby are written more to appease people like you who "Think it's too much work" or are part of the "instant gratification generation" so they make a concession to that and sacrifice "quality" over convenience.....And let us pick up the slack when people post :"is my yeast ruined" threads.
This is from a great article in byo magazine, by iirc, Chris Colby, the editor. (but I guess if he's busy editing a magazine, he must not get much brew time, either in you humble opinion.
)
http://***********/stories/recipes/article/indices/58-yeast/1258-plunge-into-liquid-yeast
You could pitch this teaspoon or so of actively fermenting yeast directly to your wort. In fact the package directions might tell you to do just that. Many brewers (including yours truly) did it that way on the first batch or two using liquid yeast. But experienced brewers caution against it. A better plan is to make a starter culture--to create a larger volume of active yeast cells for pitching. And making a starter is a must if you plan to use BrewTek, Yeast Culture Kit, or Yeast Lab products, packaged in the test tube without the sterile wort
activator.
Using a starter culture will increase the number of viable yeast cells you pitch into your wort, decreasing your chances of infection by encouraging a fast start of fermentation.
Plus if you look at BYO's succinct starter instructions, you could see how difficult it would be to get it on one of those tubes.
Or maybe you'd like to see some more answers I have given when people have had what they thought were dead yeast...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/whats-going-my-fermentation-134477/#post1516013
So if you want to trash me, and suggest that because I have a high post count (which if you do a search of my posts you will see it is from helping new brewers not make stupid mistakes like declaring their yeast dead when it really isn't
) that I don't brew, or
really know anything about brewing, mr "I brew once a month,"
then I would have to suggest that for all the batches of beer you claimed to have brewed, than you haven't learned a hell of a lot about basic brewing process to ensure you have fermentation.
We get plenty of first batch brewers who have at least heard or read that making a starter is a good idea.....and then come on here asking why.
Good luck in your inquiry...I'm sure you find a lot of people who can help you other than me. Since it looks like people were last night and are still lining up here in agreement with you. You've had 124 view of this thread since you started it, and only 12 posts, and
how many of them are in agreement with your premise? Go figure.....
Oh and they call the beer with the 45 million year old yeast....Amber ale.
Amber Ale: Brewing Beer From 45-Million-Year-Old Yeast
The magic of the internet and wireless communication, is that nowadays we can surf the web while we are at work, on the toilet, or (oh my god, really?)
While we are brewing beer, in case you haven't figured it out yet. Especially if you happen to like to share your experience by helping people out to brewe better beer.
