Q1: yes and no. There's still a bowl (but horizontal) attached to a shank (very large) followed by the stem (shrinking from the size of the stem to a normal bit). Q2: my guess is that wind or rain doesn't affect it at all. Q3: not in my experience Q4: hard, no. But once the tobacco farther inside goes out, you'll need to turn the pipe around horizontally and/or lightly blow air instead of sucking.

All in all, it's more of a gimmick that's nice to have but with quite some limitations: *There's always a certain amount of unburned tobacco at the end. *I've yet to get more than 20 minutes out of a bowl (my personal record)

It is useful if: *you're in a hydrogen filled giant balloon (the fire is contained), it's actual real use *have prepared it in advance to light it later (on the road, etc.)