The dandelion in the middle of the lawn gives you the leaves and nothing else. The top snaps off at the crown, you stand there holding a handful of greenery, and the root is still sitting in the dirt. The same plant comes back in the same spot, because the piece that grows leaves never left. You pull it again. At that point you are maintaining a weed, not removing it.

Hand pulling fails at the soil line because that is where your grip ends. Your fingers close on the leaves, the leaves are the weakest part of the plant, and the root is held in packed dirt. So the plant tears where you are holding it, long before it moves where it is anchored. The root is not what beats you. The handhold is.

This one works from underneath. Four claws go into the soil around the stem and close under the root, so the part being lifted is the root and not the leaves growing off the top of it. Then the handle does the rest. You tip it back and it levers the whole plant up in one piece instead of tearing it in half.

The other change is posture. You stay standing, so none of the job depends on your knees. Anyone who has weeded a border on all fours knows the real limit is not effort, it is how long you are willing to be down there. A job you can do upright is a job that gets finished.

Know what it is bad at. It is built around closing under one root, so it has much less to offer against creeping mats and grasses that spread sideways with no center to grab. People who buy it for those end up disappointed. It also has to get into soil to close, so it works in a lawn or a bed and does very little in gravel or a tight seam between pavers.

The thing to judge it on is not how the pull feels. It is whether you are standing over the same plant in the same spot a month from now.