Air pruning is appropriate for those plants prone to producing strong tap roots, such as many trees, but I see no benefit for tomatoes which naturally root deeply, but without major tap roots. Al

I disagree, it's like you have a much bigger size container. I actually think a plant with a tap root would not benefit at all from this method. It's not like you have more room for that root. Regular roots, would benefit. The tap root would not be air pruned I would think?
I have heard tomatoes can go down over 4 feet or more looking for water.
I don't think fruit trees have tap roots? I know that a tap root is why maples are hard to move in ground. Once you disturb or break that root, it greatly harms the tree. So taking maple seedlings from the ground often results in failure.