Yes, I am fully aware of when n-gons cause problems.

I found this was just a good example of when they can actually be useful as many just learning modeling get it in their heads that "an occasional tri is okay but n-gons are NEVER allowable" which is just not true. You certainly do not want to go crazy with them but they can in the right circumstances add useful surface details and help to reduce poly count.

The two primary problems with n-gons are - as you point out - they can cause problems when used in areas of deformation and they can cause smoothing and texturing anomalies.

I had mentioned this in my initial post but then removed it during an edit and forgot to put it back in. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.