I'm not even going to try and reply to most of your post, because it clearly and articulately describes your feelings about this situation, and frankly I think you're mostly right. I agree especially with this part:

They do have their place and uses, but they should not be used without careful consideration.

That sounds right, and I probably should have included much the same disclaimer in my original post. I didn't really mean to recommend making used-once-states for every condition that has more than 2 elements. Perhaps it was inappropriate that I brought it up in the context of the original post, but it seemed like an idea that others would find interesting and useful, and I thought was somewhat relevant.