That is the stupidest tire design. They should fire whoever came up with that. If you think about it, a spherical-shaped tire would put less of a contact patch than a cylindrical-shaped tire where you can control the width of the tire to have more or less of a contact patch.
That cylinder-shaped tire would give you the contact patch of a temporary spare tire, cutting your traction down by around half at each wheel. Would you rather have a 115 mm wide tire or a 225 mm wide tire?