I can actually think of two circumstances outside of tight knitting that involve some needle pushing, although one of them should not involve painful pushing. Using DPNs almost always requires a little bit of pushing and shoving as you move from needle to needle, especially with bamboo needles. I don't think the aforementioned technique would be helpful with DPNs, though. I just brace the needle against my pointer finger and do a quick twist. (I also prefer the slicker, less forgiving metal needles that seem to haunt most people's nightmares.)

The other situation involves knitting with very fine yarn in the round. The sheer number of stitches generally required plus the size of the loops poses some problems with gliding and moving, no matter how loose the knitting is. Generally, the joins on circular needles get in the way of the small stitches, making for a pause. (When I've knit lace on metal circs, I didn't have this problem...but I did have a very big problem of "Ohshit, my stitch just committed suicide!") Moving to the less slick bamboo or wooden circs helped, but it means I have to do a pause-n-shove every now and again. (Right now, for example, I'm procrastinating on Anna Dalvi's Mystic Star because my version has 500+ stitches silk stitches on bamboo needles in New Orleans. Hot, sticky summer, here we come! I do not enjoy moving those stitches around the needles myself.)

Generally, I agree with you, re: too damn tight.