You are right for the most part. Some ranges require guns to be benched-only. This is said to be a safety feature, but for an urbanite who has no-where to shoot but a restrictive range, learning to actually shoot a rifle becomes difficult indeed. Plus, many hunt from box blinds and other rested postions and don't have much need to learn to shoot a rifle without bags or benches.

I also like the heads-up stance tho most of my rifles are typically American-stocked; Rugers.

My AV/AIII SAKO .375 has a high cheekpiece and the EAW mounts put the scope "higher than it needs to be" according to some experts... Advantage! The gun is brought to the face.

Ditto a few others, Mausers.

Some folks are just plain used-to scrunching the face down and if it works, great.

For those who spend most of their time at the range shooting from the bags, that is no disadvantage. But some rifles are just plain poorly-stocked for field shooting as a result.

Maybe related? I also do not like a full cheek weld and prefer my chin-side to be the only part of my face against the stock. I have stickem-out cheekbones and many stocks bite me as they rise in recoil. Rugers do not, fortunately.

If a guy has some extra-high mounts laying around, a simple swap of the scope might turn out to be a worthwhile experiment. See how it feels. You might like it.

We spend very little ammunition from shooting on the bench. I never allowed my kids to become wedded to it and now they actually know how to shoot. Ditto my wife who shoots once a year as a stunt, just to make everybody feel bad! With my old 6.5x55, it's 2 to three inch 5-shot groups from sitting down, elbows on knees at 114 yards. Her routine, and d___ frustrating to the bench junkies who watch her.