Freeheel is still the only way to do "complete" skiing, where you go from flat cross country, to mild uphill, to a low angle descent without changing a thing on

Freeheel is still the only way to do "complete" skiing, where you go from flat cross country, to mild uphill, to a low angle descent without changing a thing on 3 pin or NNN-BC bindings, so it's a handy technique to have in that context. But yeah, it's pretty silly, and I think just worse than a parallel turn in a lot of conditions. Maybe I wouldn't think it was silly if I felt a good one!