I don't think gp is against the feature. They're saying

  dog 209.216.230.240

should directly perform a PTR lookup instead of requiring something like

  dog -x 209.216.230.240

Here's how host works when you give it an IP address as opposed to a domain name:

  $ host 209.216.230.240
  240.230.216.209.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer news.ycombinator.com.
  $ host news.ycombinator.com
  news.ycombinator.com has address 209.216.230.240