Say you injure just one arm... with the harness holding your weight, you operate a knife in your only good hand with no foot hold and you don't fall? Even if you did have a foot hold, cling on and climb down with one hand? Oh well, let's say you are fit enough to pull this off. Nada to hold onto but your trusty blade as you slash yourself free, woops, your falling.

Now, say your suspended, try as you may can't get back onto the stand and you drop your knife. Ah, but you've got a pal with you that day. He's out of ear shot on the next ridge and you've got no means to inform him of your situation. You figure no problem, we agreed to meet at 0900 and it's 0820... no biggie just hang around. It's comfortable... and not that much time to wait. He will come looking for you when you don't show. That's what the article was about... not that you couldn't free yourself or use other options. Just some safety factors that were good to know. It even included some respiratory matters with harness types as well... but hey, it's all good.