>If you're hand massaging every poly you're rather defeating the purpose.

That's a bit of an overstatement. Fixing normals is far less time consuming than creating a mesh from scratch. This is particularly a win for people who lack the artistic skill to create the meshes in the first place.

I've got a lot of technical 3D skills after using 3DSMax for years as a hobby. Unfortunately I lack the artistic skills to create good looking objects. This would definitely allow me to do things I couldn't before.