Currently all the stuff we want to launch is on the ground, though. Until we have a space elevator, or we're aiming to launch something huge to the outer planets, it doesn't gain us much.
Actually, it has benefits. Even if you have to launch something from Earth's surface, once in space, the fuel to move it elsewhere can be transported to meet it there much cheaper. The obvious uses are interplanetary travel, circularizing a parabolic orbit, refueling existing satellites.
