I get the sport application, however no range safety rule is, or should be, broken as long as the muzzle is always pointed down range, and not elevated above target level.
Yep. Watch high-level competitors in one of the speed-based games, and you will see the gun in all kinds of different positions when they aren't firing. In contrast, if you watch relative newcomers to those games, it's common to see them waddling between positions while maintaining some rigid "ready" or "retention" position they picked up from a class or youtube... and burning clock all the while.