The way I see it, as a kicker you still practice front running during the regular season, and then employ sit-and-kick strategies at championship events.
If you're a kicker you still need to be able to control a race to your advantage if need be. Leaving the pacing chores to someone else can oft times mess with a kicking strategy, especially when they integrate a variable pace (speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down ...) or you have a slow initial pace then someone takes off on the 3rd lap and they get away from you. That sort of stuff.