How would you distinguish between AAA, BBB, CCC, DDD, EEE without a baseline of text (for example, in a headline)? Without a reference for the top and bottom of the text, here's no way to know whether the dots are high or low.
A good point, but try it in practice and you'll encounter these situations very infrequently. The adjacent words serve as a sufficient context. If the text is by itself, a small line will suffice for a baseline.
