I've seen at least three people who have this stroke. And it ain't the best for a couple of reasons. The players are solid players, not just beginners.
Let me describe the stroke.
They hit the ball with little spin and the paddle moves parallel to the ground. It's close to an inside out spin, but they usually do not spin the ball. It's more of a flat jab, push, or swipe.
The problem is that the ball is not lifted or hit in any upward direction. The trajectory is very flat and the amount of lift on the ball is minimal.
While that might be a great thing in a few cases, it doesn't work for many cases.
For example, if you are hitting a dink and you hit the ball with the flat stroke, it passes over the net with little space to spare and thus more prone to catch the net. I agree that it's hard to return, but the error rate makes it a bad choice in my mind. Better to swing up on the ball, hit it more softly to get more of an arc to the ball flight. That creates a better safety zone over the net. It also allows the ball to be closer to the feet of the opponents when they hit it back.
I've also seen this shot from just off the kitchen line as an attempt to win the point. Again the ball goes into the net more often than it should. When it does clear the net, it is hard to return, but again, it does not seem to be a high probability shot.
You can dink with it, but it has the same issues, no margin for error, lots of net balls.
The game of pickleball requires many things and graceful, arcing ball flight is one of them! As Scott might say, "hit less winners and droop the ball into the court."
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