Wreckman,
Yep, that's the ideal way to deal with a short field. But I've been to fields where there were obstructions or no-fly zones that made that impractical.

Heck, at my current field, you can't run a normal base leg if the wind is from the left-to-right, you have to cut it short and do a circle approach because of the no-fly areas (roads) near the field.

Where I learned to fly, up in RI, we had a small field that was right next to an old factory building. If you took off to the right, you had to turn right after liftoff to avoid hitting it. If the wind was reversed, it made landing a real trick. Most guys took off and landed directly away from the pits, with base being right accross in front of the pits, turning away to land. It was "intersting" and being able to dump airspeed in a hurry was important.