"Lately I have seen some people who tow 32' to 42+' TT with nothing but the ball straight out of the receiver."
In almost 14 years of towing a travel trailer, I don't think I've ever seen that.
On top of that, it's a very bad idea because the person could be overloading their hitch without the use of a WD hitch because hitches have 2 ratings; one for WD and one without. The rating without is always much lower. Plus you're unloading the front end, but that's another discussion.
I have seen it done however on small trailers, say 18 ft.