I feel like I've spent several lifetimes crouch walking around to be sneaky in videogames. It's the default way of saying "stealth mode." Even the mighty Metal Gear series, which originally only had upright running or belly crawling, eventually bent the knee—both of them, in fact.
Haven you ever tried crouch walking? Like, in real life. Go ahead and do it right now wherever you're reading this: In class, at work, on the bus, on the John, I'll wait. Didn't feel very sneaky, did you?
I feel like the only games I've ever seen comment on the impracticality were New Vegas and The Outer Worlds 2. In the former, Raul complains about his bad knees sometimes when you stealth while he's following. In the latter, "bad knees" is a tradeoff trait you can get where your creaky joints can alert enemies when you drop into a crouch.
