A lot of modern cars and vans have the hill start function, which simply stops you rolling back when you are pulling away on a gradient, when I learnt to drive 55 years ago we called that a handbrake and you had to operate it whilst balancing the accelerator pedal in unison with handbrake, anyway back to point in question, with the Grosset starter this facility is inbuilt, probably not by design, but a by product of the sprag clutch, this can be useful in stop start traffic on an uphill gradient, but it is a real pain in the ass if you select neutral on a gradient and then try to engage first gear and the sprag clutch baulks the gear change.
Having said that I would not now want to be without the electric starter, saving me from embarrassment and my ankle, knee and hip from further punishment.