I'd say roughly 90% of the golfers I've met OUTSIDE OF MY OWN CLUB consider a handicap to be a number the designates how good a player you are. Nothing more. These are the guys into "testing themselves" or "improving" or whatever other mumbo-jumbo they think is captured by the number "12.9" or "+2.2" or what have you.
There's a world of players out there who don't participate in any competition more organized than a $2 Nassau with junk bets and automatic presses. And within their usual groups they don't play off their actual number anyway but rather some mutually agreed upon number of strokes given or taken.
These magazine and retail store based deals are as good as anything else to the public course golfer who wants a precise number to track his "progress" as a golfer. And indirectly to measure his worth as a human being, in some cases. If they can also use it when they sign up for some charity scramble hit-and-giggle that's good too. But the main purpose is just to know "how good you are".
Bet you all these freebie or retail or web-based alternative 'caps will come bundled with some kind of app and/or website to track various self-improvement statistics and plot out graphs of the golfer's "skill" over time. Millions of golfers are not into competing, they are in to golf as a skill mastery and self-congratulatory activity.