I was curious: can this be generalised to all EQ mounts? I can see this being useful, for instance, if you mount a low-powered scope, or just want a quick session without lengthy setup.
There are shortcuts to the polar alignment of equatorially mounted telescopes for visual observers. I have equatorial mounts that I use with my 80mm, 5-inch, and 6-inch refractors. My tripod-setup-with-polar-alignment times for all of them, even when used from locations where Polaris isn't visible, is quick and painless taking only a few seconds (well under a minute) of my time.
That being said, there are situations where I prefer using an alt-az mount, (for terrestrial use and for making horizontal sweeps with vertical increments as was done in the not-so-distant past for visual comet-hunting), but those situations very rarely come up for me these days. When they do occur, I use one of my homemade alt-az mounts in preference to totally off-setting the more or less (for me) permanent settings of my EQ mounts -- settings that I set once, and never have to adjust again unless I travel to a location with a significantly different latitude, which I almost never do.
In all seriousness, any of my German Equatorial Mounts (GEMs) can be setup just as quickly as any of my alt-az mounts for my visual observing purposes. For astronomical usage (with the exception of old-fashioned visual comet-hunting) I always prefer my GEMs over my alt-az mounts.
P.S. one other exception would be to observe a comet that's very close to the north celestial pole. I knew there was another reason for making my alt-az mounts 
. But for quick set-up? For a visual observer? For me that's not a reason to prefer an alt-az mount. Then again, I've not been considering go-to mounts. A go-to equatorial mount is more likely to need greater precision set-up and to require more time to achieve it. As with so many other things in this hobby, details matter, and often questions get asked without sharing one or more of the relevant details . . .
