I don't know if anyone else has ever done this, but a few years ago I had crawled under the back of one of my 2011 Cruisers to take the hitch cover off. I had a screw driver in hand to pop the tabs and then set that screw driver up on the rear bumper when I was done, only a few minutes late I popped the rear hatch open and dropped the tailgate only to here a thud of the gate hitting that screw driver handle and creasing the rear tailgate.
Luckily a $100 or $200 later my PDR guy had the crease pushed back out.
I think had I had this soft open tailgate feature the 18 has now, that crease would have never happened.