If you are short stack and in jeopardy of busting before the bubble, stalling can't hurt you. There are usually enough tables left in a MTT to let you slide into the money.
If you are the big stacks stalling can't hurt you either, the stall is eating up level time so that when you do get a hand, or make a move, the stakes will be bigger.
For the average stack its a double edged sword. You know that you will likely play TAG to insure ITM, but you are losing time, and the blinds are going up fast relative to the number of
hands seen.
In general stalling seems to be mainly a function of how big the tourney is. In a single table tourney, obviously stalling does nothing, likewise with limited table tourneys, (2,3,4,- 10) tourneys, though at 10 tables there is some value in stalling, it is still mostly negated by the hand for hand process.
However you perceive it, I feel it is a valid strategy to stall when the time is right.