You, sir, are an idiot.
No need to be a richard.
-snip-
People who use replacement fonts get a raped appearance of the text depending on how the browser decides to replace it.
Even if it's just text, that is basically the logo of the company. You don't want people seeing some disfigured stuff instead. Google does the same thing, actually.
Plus, the image isn't huge or anything - no reason not to use it really.