I must say I have used TPQ dating throughout my career and
listened to numerous mean ceramic date papers. I guess there
is utility somewhere but I agree with Pratzelis et al on this
one. Working in POMPEII for forty years sharpens your acuity
to TPQ!!! I remember the Italians in 1991 excavated a small
house in Region One of Pompeii that was CRAMMED with
exquisitely engraved Greek bronzes from the late fourth and
early third centuries B.C.E. Wow, would the mean date tell a
crazy story there when you averaged them in with the later
Roman bronzes (which were far fewer). Yet all the bronzes
were sitting on the floor covered by Vesuvius.In Pompeii, the
TPG appears miraculously after you excavate the last of those
little ash bits (lapilli) and its August, 79 C.E.  At City
Point we excavated a cellar filled with thousands of objects
and dated it to the early 1760's because of the absence of
creamware except for this wondrous proto creamware that
resembled scratch blue stoneware in decoration. The bottle
glass shapes also confirmed our interpretation. And since the
main house was built in 1763 our inference was House One went
down(probably not house One by the way) and House Two went
up. Sure, a Victorian stamped weight wandered into the fill
by way of some convenient biofactual portal but thats
explainable. Anyway, the Europeans pretty much use TPQ
ubiquitously.I just particpated in the excavation of a HUGE
Roman villa at Cumae and there was lots of earlier ceramics
but the newest objects (glass mostly) confirmed the building
date. Constantinian coinage showed the site was exposed in
the fourth century C.E. Interesting discussion.