I wondered what C.H.Middleton (wartime broadcaster and writer on all things gardening), might have said, and have just looked it up...
In short, his take is that the main reason for digging, is to aerate as much of the soil depth as is possible, which entails double-digging, to enable natural and applied nutrients compost etc., to get further down in the ground, and encourage larger crops from extended root systems. Also, an autumn dig lets the weather take care of much of the spring preparation after the frosts etc. have done their work.
An old boy I knew well, used to sum it all up by saying 'You want a deeply dug soil, so that veg can get down deeper, because that is where the grub is'!
Nowadays, we don't rely on the need to have yard-long carrots or parsnips, as there are so many new varieties which grow quite comfortably in shallow topsoil, but that wouldn's have been the case all those years ago, I suspect.
Nowadays, I'd definitely dig to get rid of all the invasive weeds, and also - in a strange way, actually enjoy the task, as it really is making nature behave properly, but after that, it's tilling and hoeing, because there's so much compost, old growbags etc. chucked everywhere at home, there really is no need to dig deeply any more.
So that's a sort of compromise I suppose...