'Memento homo quia pulvus es, et in pulverem REVERTERIS' ...to DUST THOU SHALT RETURN.
Except death returns body-physicality to earth whence it comes, earth is deprived of the rejuvenation of decomposition - what restores essential tilth to living soil.
To me, the return of body to tilth is an honorable way of saying 'Thank you!" for the personal privilege of life - let's religiously be faithful to sacred ecology. Let's make 'ecology-burial-choice' the default choice and get beyond after-death body-adoration.
The good one does lives on in soul, generation upon generation.