Form letter builder needs a character counter just like the direct SMS function has since you build SMS campaign templates with it... it's probably more important here because if you're over by a few letters, the mistake is compounded over the whole of target SMS list, not just the one off you'd send that actually has a counter. There actually is a counter once you get to the communication wizard for sending bulk emails, and it's nice that you can make changes in the Wizard to SMS unlike with email (maybe the character count is the reason SMS can be edited by not email?). But it's a lot to do to change your template based on the cahracter count or a hassle to copy and paste it into a browswer window.