People who know how to swing an aircraft have told you how it's done.
You're quite right - (and hot dinners come to mind). They’d be people like the Kiwi CAA whose airlines pioneered pre INS/GPS trans Pacific flights. Dragging an aircraft around a surveyed compass base with a tug, tow bar, and running Houchin is ludicrous.
Your average RAF compass base is not really suitable for taxiing your average large jet.
A triumph of convenience over common sense. If you can tow it you can taxi it. Not that any of this matters to 558.