I think this is not totally accurate.
The issue is whether you want to replace everything that was in the
content database with the version in the backup, or whether you want
to selectively restore some parts of the content data.
Selective restore requires your method.
But if the entire content database need to be rolled back, just
detach the old content database and attach the backup version.
Your instructions are also for the situation where you are trying to
create a second copy of some site. The reason you can't just attach a
second copy of some content database to a SharePoint site is because
the sites in the duplicate content database would have the same GUID
as the original sites. That's the reason to restore it to another
farm and use STSADM to copy it back to the original site. STSADM -o
restore creates a new GUID.