Good point. You can often substitute knots as well. Say, you have forgotten how to tie that hitch you used to love so much to attach your rope to a tree. Nothing wrong with throwing a bowline around that tree (with a safety overhand or two on the tail end). Not necessarily what a bowline was designed for, but a useful substitution none the less. I'd much rather put a bowline to use like this than to try (and fail !) to remember that fancy hitch I used to know, get it wrong, and fall to my death over a cliff because of an improperly tied knot letting loose.