Windows 7 - Bitlocker without TPM - Security or Security Theater?

I'm trying to figure out if I understand this. To use BitLocker without a TPM, you put the encryption key on a flash drive. Since you can't protect the key, anyone who has both the flash drive and the physical hard drive has all your data and the key needed to decrypt it.

According to Microsoft's recommended best practices, the flash drive should never be left in or kept with the encrypted machine. This seems like an unrealistic expectation, especially with a laptop. It feels like if you don't have TPM, using BitLocker is just theater.

I use True Crypt myself that way I don't have to put anything anywhere except in my head. Using the hidden true crypt container you can even fool people that you have given them the contents of the container when you really haven't. That would be under extreme circumstances like extortion and torture which would never happen in the real world...

Also there are flash drives that can be encrypted too. It's like your car keys, you don't leave the keys in the ignition.