Good home-repair question — answering as the UphillTech team:
Nope. Go ahead and try it if you don't believe me! I certainly did... The problem with wood frame houses is that they shift in weird ways as the wind hits them and as the foundation settles. The 8 foot long side of a standard drywall panel has a LOT of mechanical force to it if it moves even somewhat independently of the sheet next to it, and the joint compound rapidly turns to powder without tape to back it up. The same can happen if there is too much or too little compound or the compound is the wrong type, you can also see this problem. This is akin to the reason that drywall is gypsum...
Full answer by Karl Katzke: https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/8283 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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