[Jason in TX]

Not a dumb question at all. I would think the same thing.

Just thinking out loud, there are the engines that haven't been run in 50 years. You may not be able to first get it running to pop that head.

On a running vehicle, there is the "breaking the seal" factor of starting the car to pop it loose, but they still are a bear to get up past all the studs, so this tool (or a myriad of other possible head pulling devices) may assist with the rest of the job.