I wouldn't be so categorical. Tooltip edit provides a different experience with respect to other 'one click edit' tools (e.g., best in place gem approach), and I actually find this better for some contexts, in as much as it improves user's awareness about the fact she's actually changing something on the database (persistent attribute change). Think about an edit profile form, for instance.

If you don't want forms, use inputs with no border or background except when :active.

Why does a regular form not work for a profile?

Salesforce.com does a reasonable job of inline editing as they turn ALL fields on the form editable. So the annoyance of not being able to select text to type over it only happens once.