ok, so from what can be seen in the tutorial, it's probably quite useful for making orbital shots only.
However I think the holy grail Terragen-wise is to fractally create convincing and complex continents and ther subsequent features. Personally, I believe heightfields are mostly good for low-camera shots, and image masks to use for displacement would be too large on a planetary scale.
The closest someone has come with making global discplacements based on fractals only is nvseal, with his "global displacement pack".
One thing that remains problematic though, is the decreasing numeric accuracy the farther you move away from the origin at (0;0;0), means that you can't control millimeter scale displacements anymore on the south pole, so to speak.
Anyway, thanks for the link, it's always interesting to learn about something new
Frank