Microsoft Word Automate WordCount frustration

It's amazing how difficult it can be to find information about MS Word when writing VBA (or automation using C#) - I needed to find the wordcount and charactercount programmatically, but the "document properties" m_Word.ActiveDocument.Words.Count and m_Word.ActiveDocument.Characters.Count don't seem to relate to ANYTHING!?!?!.

Thankfully this page myITforum.com : Document Word Counter gave me a push in the right direction:

object missing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;
m_Word.ActiveDocument.ComputeStatistics(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdStatistic.wdStatisticWords, ref missing);

Why have Words and Characters properties if they don't DO anything???

P.S. Originally thought DSOFile would be able to do this job - but the Word and Char Count stored in the document properties in the filesystem isn't always up-to-date or meaningful either - it seems like ComputeStatistics is the only reliable way...