Originally Posted by Camilo

I think that the reason a lot of people use them on road bikes is so they can wear walkable shoes with the 2 bolt cleats instead of the typical 3 bolt road shoe, cleat and pedal. For instance, if you use your bike for running errands or touring where you know you'll be regularly walking.

I use 2 bolt system on my gravel bikes and MTB. I also switch over to use 2 bolt cleats, pedals and shoes if I take my "real" road bike on vacation, because I know I'll do some walking in those circumstances. As opposed to just riding a dedicated road bike around my usual routes at home where I know it's unlikely I'll do any walking and the 3 bolt system isn't really an issue at all.

However! When my current 3 hole road shoes or pedals wear out, I'll probably transition those bikes to 2 bolt spd type pedals like the one you pictured (or whatever the current iteration is) to just get rid of potential brain fart shoe incompatibility. The type of road and gravel riding I do really doesn't benefit from the marginal advantages of a 3 bolt road cleat and pedal system. I have a nice pair of Sidi MTB shoes which are identical to their road shoe counterparts except for the tread. Nice stiff soles, very comfortable, just like the road shoes and I can drive the car and run into the store if I need to.