The risk of not being able to capitalize on a great hand is surprisingly well balanced by the advantage of being able to intentionally go all-in with a weaker draw where you would otherwise suffer terrible reverse-implied odds.
Like anything else in poker, awareness of a weird context and the right way to modify play makes a big difference.
I.e., when you pay two small bets to come in, and you flop a gutshot, you'll be please to discover that you only have 1/2 small bet left. You can profitably go all-in and hope to make your draw, because you don't have to pay to play any more. This situation is more common than flopping an actual straight and wishing you had money to get paid off.
The real loss is in not KNOWING that you're on the verge of going all-in. In this example, if you didn't know that you only had 1/2 small bet left, you would not call the gutshot! Suddenly you have all the disadvantages of a short stack without any of the advantages.