A correctly done steep spiral knife edge maneuver in a 182 can push 5,000 fpm in the descent. Maybe that sheds some light on why it is so useful. I have obtained that descent rate many times, two minutes from door shut to touchdown. Like I said several times it takes some skill, and it is not something you want newbies doing. On the other hand, you get so much practice at a busy drop zone there is no reason anyone cannot work it up over a period of days or weeks which is what I did.

As for loading the wings to 3 g's, it works fine all day every day. In material science there is something called the elastic limit of a material, which is the stress limit where complete recovery of the strength of the material occurs without permanent damage. Drop zone experience has it that 182s can go to the mid +3g range for decades without exceeding this limit. Above that to the certified limit of +3.58 works fine too, but you have no margin for error going that high in normal operations. Beyond that up to about 4.5 you will not fold a wing right away, but you will start popping rivets on top of the wing. If you do that enough times you will pop a lot of rivets, and beyond that you may fold a wing. Go right to 5+ and you may fold a wing without warning. There is a company that has tested 182 wings to this level (and was not Cessna). I'll see if I can dig up that reference.

Another relevant question is, what is the life cycle load limit- it does decrease with time, but it is such a high number that no drop zone with any vintage 182 has ever found any change (reduction in limit) as far as I know. And I have asked if there are any. of the data I have examined, there is no evidence that load limits have come down within 50 years of normal operations over which data was collected.