Pog's a special case. :)

I'm thinking more of a breakaway situation - a group of roughly equivalent riders, all knackered after a hard day in the breakaway, all vying for the stage win. If someone gets a gap, 90% of the time 'group two mentality' takes over and they don't organise a successful chase. Giving one of those riders an extra boost of watts for a few seconds for that attack could make all of the difference.

You're right that it won't always work, but these things are a numbers game - most of the time, breakaways are swallowed up, and even when a breakaway rider wins, (obvs) the rest of them don't win. And yet people still join the breakaway, to try to realise that tiny% chance of winning. Going from 5% to 10% win probability isn't much overall, but it's still doubling your chance.