Why Physical Temples?
The need for physical temples has been questioned since the days of Solomon and by many of the Old Testament prophets. (e.g., why does God need a temple to dwell in when He has created all and the Earth is His foot stool? The sacrifice of a contrite heart and obedience is better than the sacrifice of animals. Our body is the temple of God.) The book of Hebrews proclaims that Jesus was the final sacrifice for all and the great high priest who entered into the holy of holies for all thus fulfilling forever the role that the old Jewish temples had served.
Similarities of modern temple rituals to those of ancient times appears to be from imitation rather than revelation. The similarities to Masonic rituals cannot be easily dismissed. The symbols of the remnants of the medieval crusading holy order of the Knights Templar have also been copied, although displayed upside down or in different positions.
John's Revelation of the New Jerusalem specifically says that no temple was there because Christ in person was the temple. "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." (Revelation 21:22)
The modern LDS church is building temples everywhere and lots of them - why? I believe it is because there is nothing of the Holy to be found in an LDS meeting place.
While Catholic churches have the Body of Christ in the tabernacle and Synagogues have the Word of God in the Torah, Mormons have nothing that connects them with anything Holy.
The central focus in their meeting places isn't an altar of sacrifice or the Word of God but a central pulpit.
The LDS can only come close to a personal encounter with the Holy in their temples that are patterned on Masonic signs, symbols, and tokens and the Catholic liturgy of the Easter Vigil, in a worship space that is patterned after a pre-Vatican II Catholic church with a communion rail separating Earth and the people from Heaven and a central altar.