Free Skate

Whats the deal with the free skate, and is it still going?
The free skate never made much sense to me, throw hundreds of people together on the ice, skating in an oval.. with really no purpose at all. The odd time someone would get hurt, or a few people would piss off the other skaters by having a race and bumping into other skaters.
Then there was the person who needed a chair to help balance themselves on the ice, and you knew noone gave that person any respect.
Then you'd have the intermission where you'd go to the vendors and buy junk food and soda, only to put back on the weight that it's assumed you went there to work off in the first place.

I just personally don't agree with the concept of a free skate, I'm not sure if its common anymore, but it shouldn't be.