There can be an advantage under certain startup and stop cases. If Pinlet is relatively close to pipe max design pressure at the inlet, a low flow may not have enough friction pressure drop to keep P below max all the way to the outlet, whereas full design flow would have a greater friction drop and keep P below Pmax everywhere. A low flow with backpressure at the outlet to keep away from column separation at the inlet may result in a very high operating pressure at the outlet, whereas open channel flow might arrive at the outlet with little to no higher pressure at all. The last segment of the BTC pipeline has a 30" diameter, as opposed to its normal 42" to increase friction drop at all flows and at times of very low flows, operates as an open channel, because of a large drop in elevation over the last segment. At low flow, the gain in pressure from decreasing elevation is very high in relation to low flow frictional loses. At high flow rates they pretty much cancel out.