You can patch it to go wherever you want, but it is still only one output. With a routing switcher, you can press several buttons and send one signal to several places. If patching, your only choice would be to send the signal to a distribution amplifier and manually patch its outputs to several places. The better models have a multilevel breakaway permitting you to switch just the picture, or just one or two channels of the sound individually. And speaking of sound, professionals who can afford it would probably buy four channel audio in their routing switchers.
Industrial users can probably get by with just stereo.
Because you can't read the lables on the skinny ones without an electron microscope. You want the coaxial shields from the video cables to be completely isolated from all building metal. For audio patch bays the opposite is true. The ground shields can all be tied together and grounded to the jack field and to what other ground straps you have. Thus the ground wire never gets to make a complete circuit which causes hum, ground loops, and other interference.