[woolion]

This is not an example of the "rule of cool", there's a human and technological point that is made by this scene. However, because the movie drops most of the context from the original work, it is only something visually striking and impressive for most people. In-universe, this is considered almost nonsensical technology (for the obvious reasons that are invoked here).

[hombre_fatal]

It doesn't really matter what it's an example of nor what the real motivation was. Your emphasis that it's deliberate only supports my point that it's not a naive vision of future HCI from the 90s.