The issue with most of those workouts is that they often incorporate „unhealthy“ exercises like squats (with weights) or situps. I find it really hard to find one that focuses on health rather than building muscle.
Muscle does not 'build' without eating. Size comes from calories plus progressive loading.
As for as health goes, every person (particularly those untrained) would be more healthy with more strength. More strength means less likely to injure oneself in everyday movements and less likely to have events like falls as they get older. And to loop back around to the top, squats are key part of this type of health.
High (comparative) weight + low reps builds strength (and muscle recruitment) without (necessarily) building lots of new muscle fibers. Muscle hypertrophy happens most often with lower weights and higher repetitions, plus loads of calories. A program like "Starting Strength" is not about hypertrophy.
Any exercise is potentially "unhealthy," particularly if it requires specialized movements. You can learn proper form for "base" lifts like the squat and deadlift without any equipment at first.
to anyone here who routinely jumps to one plate without warming up and struggles to hit depth: know that i pity you, but you can still back off and get good at these movements if you really care.
I got injured doing a 225lb warmup on squats. If I had to diagnose what actually happened, I'm overly tight and the synovial fluid caused some injury.
But that injury lasted 1-2 months, I just didn't squat. I've been neglecting stretching for to long.
I admit you're probably right if your goal is to get good at bodyweight squat...