As you said, it totally depends on the stages. This is just one example: GM Ted Bonnet runs a FUN shoot most Saturdays of the month.---steel and paper His stages typically start behind a fault line and last shot is in a box maybe 8-10 yards downrange in a straight line, OR alternating left and right beside a centerline. All along the 10yd movement are right and left targets, with some no-shoots scattered in. This is also done from one shooting box and moving ACROSS to the last shooting box. Ted teaches shooting as close to the target as possible when it's in the direction your going, so shooting on the move saves a lot of time AND puts you closer to the target when shooting.
I have shot almost every target from just in front of the start fault line, but the times are faster with some better hits for those that can move and shoot fairly accurately.
It's not always needed, but it does come into play at least on a stage or two of our two local USPSA matches as well--often seen, especially with steel poppers that are visible while moving and hidden metric targets after you advance. I can shoot all the steel standing and then move, but I'm losing time to those that that can shoot the steel on the way down range. My shooting scores are high, my time sucks.
