JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
As a pitcher, you can control how much weight, or down thrust you put on your replant. example: Try placing your palm flat on a wall, simulate your foot and drag your hand smoothly along the wall, now apply, a slight but very brief downward pressure while you keep your hand moving. You can have pressure variations to your replant. Some pitchers apply more or less pressure than other pitchers.
I completely agree with you, to a large extent this is all a matter of degree. I see a very small amount of weight bearing on the rear foot of a lot of pitchers, but I do not see them using this for powering the pitch, it looks more like a move to stabilize themselves. On the obvious re-planters you can see they are using it as a significant power source though.