> > Like much of original LaTeX, it is sloppy coding and profligate
> > waste of TeX features.
>
> Then, we could say \parshape is here for "historical
> reasons".
Others may have a different view of the situation :-)
It has become the de-facto interface for interacting with the
list indents, so changing it would cause much breakage.
Did I mention that \parshape has the advantage of automatically
applying to the equations? Yes.