Why is $element available/injected in controller?

Question

In AngularJS, I\'ve noticed that a controller is injected with $element, which is a JQuery/JQLite wrapper of the element the controller is controlling. For exam

Answer 1

In the light of the various guides and tutorials that suggest you shouldn't access the DOM in a controller, why is this even possible?

Whether you inject $element or not, the controller's scope is bound on that element.

angular.element('#element-with-controller').scope();

Angular revolves around directives. It's what glues things together in the MVC. And if you think about it, ng-controller, is a directive itself.

Is there any non-hacky use case for this?

I guess this can come in handy when you're using a single controller for multiple directives.

.controller('MyController', function($scope, $element){
    $scope.doSomething = function(){
        // do something with $element...
    }
})
.directive('myDirective1', function(){
    return {
        controller: 'MyController'
    }
})
.directive('myDirective2', function(){
    return {
        controller: 'MyController'
    }
})

Each directive will have a new instance of the assigned controller, but basically share it's properties, dependencies.

Are there any examples of this being used in available code somewhere?

I wrote a form handler controller once, for registration/login/contactus, etc.