I agree but sometimes there's no other option if you want to get them outside.
Was catsitting my daughter's cat in Seattle and if he had bolted we would have never seen him again. Once he realized the leash allowed him to go outside he
was okay with it. But then, he's a pretty mellow cat.

Wouldn't exactly call it 'walking' tho. And he could turn around and back out of the harness, so I had to pay attention. He tried to a couple of times when something spooked him. In general though the harness worked pretty well
and was easy to adjust.

Can't even imagine putting my cat in a harness, he would probably land on top of my head or something.