This makes so much sense. By doing it this way, the iron isn't fighting the thermal conductivity of the rest of the solder feed. It just has to heat a small b

This makes so much sense. By doing it this way, the iron isn't fighting the thermal conductivity of the rest of the solder feed. It just has to heat a small bit of solder. I know there are aficionados who can point out possible disadvantages of this approach, but honestly, I can see this technique being really handy when you just want to prototype something out and you want to get things done efficiently. Not every solder joint needs to be perfect, just as not every PCB needs to be factory quality and is going to a customer. As someone who only occasionally needs to solder a custom circuit, this looks like a time saver. If I was frequently making PCBs by hand, maybe I'd think otherwise.