I will surely not condemn anyone choosing to use their parking brakes, which is certainly not a bad habit. On the other end, I , and certainly several thousand other drivers, are not doing it for no particular reason and have not experienced any catastrophe because of this habit.
I have lived in an ''ice belt, snow belt, bitter cold belt'' all my life, (for 6 months every year), I have never never lost my brake going downhill, the ''permanent stress'' does not seem to have affected my Benz over the last 14 years as I still have the original engine mounts and drive-shaft flex-disks.
JackD