What is "Pilot mode" in wireless systems?

Question

I've Sennheiser wireless microphone, that has option Pilot mode and "Squelch".

I have read here :

About Squelch:

An FM receiver generates a high level of broadband noise when it's not receiving a signal...enough noise to be unpleasant to listen to and possibly damage speakers. To circumvent this, a squelch circuit is generally incorporated. At the simplest, this turns off the receiver output when a certainly level of signal is not being picked up. However, this form of squelch can be fooled into unmuting when an interfering signal is picked up.

About PILOT MODE:

A better system to handle the squelch is a high-frequency pilot tone to the transmitter signal. The receiver checks incoming signals to see if the pilot tone is present.If not, the receiver assumes that the signal is not from its own transmitter and keeps the receiver muted even if the interfering signal is very strong. This form of squelch is generally referred to as "pilot tone" or "tone coded" squelch.

My question:

i will always ENABLE that option...
1) Why "Pilot mode" even exists, as noone wish to disable that feature?

2) does that consume battery much?

Answer 1

Both conventional, carrier-strength squelch and pilot-tone type squelch are used to mute the signal when the connection is compromised. But the pilot-tone method has the advantage that it gates only on the signal from the matching transmitter, whereas the simple carrier-strength squelch is vulnerable to being "tricked" by other strong interfering signals.

It is unlikely that it consumes any additional battery power. FM transmits a constant RF power regardless of what is modulating it (or not).