They are excellent, versatile footwear. Comfortable. Great for stepping out back to grill, to get the mail, heading to a friends pool party, fishing, the beach or anything wet, or running out for the day.
The offer ZERO ankle support and often don't fit snuggly enough to support anything really. Unless you wear flip flops, don't wear these. Easy way to end up with constant foot, ankle, and knee problems.
They’re actually pretty popular with hikers. They’re lightweight and comfortable, and also non-absorbent.
Not for the actual hiking part, but they’re great to throw in your backpack and wear around camp at the end of the day, and if they get wet they aren’t going to get heavy so you can wear them instead of your boots if you have to wade across a creek.
The reason hiking shoes have ankle support is because most people already have glass ankles. If you let your ankles strengthen without them then rolling your ankles doesn't equal injury. I went on a long hike just last weekend and rolled my ankles pretty hard on two occations without any pain or injury.
Also lots of "activity" shoes don't have ankle support. See: most basketball shoes, trail/ultra running shoes, football cleats. All shoes that are pretty optimized for performance in sports that have high ankle impact, most are low top.