> it used to be that the head just crashed into the spinning platter, can you even imagine
If I remember correctly, it was not that bad. The head being parked in a random place meant it could damage the plate if the disk was moved or shaken. I think that modern disks would indeed crash (if not for autoparking) but they have much smaller flying heights and thus require serious active magic to keep the head from hitting the plate.
This is correct - parking the heads moved the head to the side so it wasn't above the platter; but just pulling power meant the head was still above the platter, but no damage.
Parking would mean you could move the drive and the head wouldn't bounce off the platter.
If I remember correctly, it was not that bad. The head being parked in a random place meant it could damage the plate if the disk was moved or shaken. I think that modern disks would indeed crash (if not for autoparking) but they have much smaller flying heights and thus require serious active magic to keep the head from hitting the plate.