It’s great for uphill segments, it’s plain stupid for downhill. They should just make it impossible to create segments which lose altitude – that would be pretty simple. After all KOM’s are supposed to be for going uphill – I’ll even accept it off road as well as on.
It is a great tool to compare your fitness against other riders and does make training rides at least more interesting – STRAVA for training, the Jo Burt Stravasectomy for just riding along with mates….ie, no cadence, no heart rate monitors just good old fashioned bragging rights and banter at the end of trails….