Pros and Cons of Testing

We have been talking a lot about testing in class and sort of sparked my interest to research the pros and cons of testing myself.
I definitely think that there are major setbacks to tests that cannot be ignored. It is fair to say that tests are mostly about memorization, whether it is recalling facts or applying them to the bigger picture, some kind of intense memorization process is involved. Some students are extremely good at this type of learning and retaining information, but what about the other students who are not as good at this but are at other ways of showing information? We must consider that not everyone is "test-taker," and with practice they may never be and it has nothing to do with their intelligence. And does this kind of learning and retaining process actually show that students are not just memorizing the situation but are understanding it and applying it to their lives (which is indeed the ultimate goal of education)? Also, I'm sure everyone can agree that testing young children is absolutely ridiculous. In fact, in the article I have linked below, they talk about how extremely common it is for young students tests to be sent to grading facilities covered in vomit due to "test jitters." Also, tests definitely dictates the learning and teaching freedom in the classroom. I can say from personal experiences that I never liked taking AP classes because the curriculum was catered to the tests and was very static, so I always ended up taking college-level high school classes that were not centered around a test but rather on the grade you got in the class and allowed for more freedom and subject exploration. Obviously, there are many more cons that come with tests.
However, I think it is important to remember that testing does have its benefits when done correctly in practice, and it is done correctly in practice in most cases. Students have to be examined in some type of way, maybe in the future it doesn't have to be an actual test per say, but as educators we must know the type of progress that our children are or are not making so that we can correctly do our job in assisting them. Which I believe is also another benefit of correct testing: the results can allow to see possibly which students are struggling with understanding the topics in class. Seeing that a specific student got a bad grade on a test can be a warning signal to a teacher that maybe either this student is having troubles with test-taking or is really struggling to understand the class. And if the student won't ask for help themselves, then this can provide a segue for the teacher and the student to have a conversation about what exactly it is that they need help with.
This article actually gives a table of the pros and cons of testing so I thought it was very interesting in regards to what we have been talking about in class: http://standardizedtests.procon.org/#background