There are many more names for that kind of setup... Hamburg three way, thunder-and-lightning three way (a reference to the fact that an arcing switch will cause a dead short in this arrangement),...
The problem is, the lights are off and you still might have a live wire up there. And it doesn't work with most modern switches. The old rotary snap switches and toggles were big and had a wide contact spacing. New decora style switches have the internal contacts much closer together, making them much more prone to arcing and shorts.
In Germany that was a way to install a grounded socket and three-way switch using only a 3 wire cable w/o ground... combined ground and neutral, hot and lamp return wire was all that was needed. In Austria it seems to have been used but I've never seen it done.
