thats a good point, i forgot that this was the fixie sub forum and assumed skidding was stopping in general not a trick. yeah your right about the larger surface area providing more comfort doing skids.
I rode with these for a bit and liked them til i tried hold fasts. I found on the power grips that my shoe would bump against the crank arm as it came around sometimes and got kind of annoying. Also for skidding, the wider holdfast distributes the weight out more so they just felt more comfortable personally.