nmap is a utility for port scanning large networks, although it works fine for single hosts. Sometimes you need speed, other times you may need stealth. In some cases, bypassing firewalls may be required. Not to mention the fact that you may want to scan different protocols (UDP, TCP, ICMP, etc.). You just can't do all this with one scanning mode. And you don't want to have 10 different scanners around, all with different interfaces and capabilities. Thus I incorporated virtually every scanning technique I know into nmap.
9716254451bc041faca29b864cd0531c3fa5071da5b4735fc3f759e6f604d0d4