Where's the merit in running the game faster than the monitor is refreshing? The updates never reach the screen...
Well, if it's vsynced it's basically capped... that's true

Turning vsync off is just for benchmarking purposes.
The Q3 engine for example can spit out up to 500fps (lag occures - crash @ 1000fps) and it allows the user to use either fps capping (with com_maxfps), enabling of vsync (with r_swapinterval) or disabling of the limiters alltogether (both 0).
That's pretty cool imo. It even allows 60(vsynced) fps @ 120hz (r_swapinterval 2) - that makes sense if your comp is slow and your monitor is kinda nice

However, it allows everyone to run the game as smooth as possible. For me it's 85fps@85hz, for others maybe 60/60 and for others even 120/120.
Oh and if vsync is off the frames reach the screen... well not completly hence you'll get tearing.