why military circuits are a racetrack pattern
IIRC it was posted/speculated on here some while ago that it stems from the high nose attitude required by tail wheel aircraft thus a continuous turn to short finals afforded better visibility of the landing area.
WRT to the OP, I teach low hours PPL students not to do it due to their capacity to cope with the trim change and possible asymmetric deployment. Quite happy to see more qualified/experienced pilots do it and I don't bollock them for it. Quite happy to do it myself as well!