$compile vs $componentController

I'm relatively new to Angular and have begun writing my application with a component architecture. When looking through the Angular docs it recommends testing components with the $componentController mock method.

However, when I look at how directives have traditionally been tested in Angular pre-1.5 it looks like the preferred method was to use the $compile service to actually build your directive template-and-all. By using $compile you can make assertions about your template logic as well as the controller logic. Whereas with the $componentController method you can only test the controller logic, which doesn't actually seem all that useful since most complexity is found in templates and services.

Can someone shed some light on modern best practices? To me it makes more sense to use $compile so that you can test the template as well. But why do the Angular docs not mention this at all and instead recommend $componentController?