Eli Snyder the point of Cloud Decisions is to allow an App to make a decision using data stored OUTSIDE of Eloqua, making it unnecessary to bring the data into Eloqua first, then making a decision on it. Think about the overhead involved now, you need to wait for a cloud connector to process records (100-200 at a time), which then brings the data back into a contact field or CDO, then yet another step is needed to make a decision on it. With the new framework, a Decision app can be built to process members in bulk (think in the 10s of thousands), and make the decision based on data in an external system, then leave it there.
So, no need to bring data into Eloqua that does not belong, MUCH faster processing, and the canvas can be simplified by needing less steps.