Heeling In?

Evening all,

A gentleman at my allotment site said that, as we have loamy crumbly soil, I need to heel the soil in.

Is this just tampering the soil down to get good seed contact?

Or is there another reason for this, as I have always been told never to compact the soil?!.

Thats what I thought, but he said he was a retired gardener of 40 years

Not that I remember, I think he said something about the plants could blow over in the wind and get torn out too.

Do I need to worry about this, or can I carry on?

And can I just firm the plants in by hand when transplanting things?

And surely anything sown direct will just look after itself?