Your generalizations are lost on me. I'm not at all certain where you are getting your perspective from.

As for weight lifters being good powerlifters and not the other way... well, maybe. But I wouldn't say it has anything to do with the way they learned to squat.

Your average Olympic lifter has an above average flexibility and strength due to the requirements of the sport. They also posess an amazing amount of power and speed. So taking these guys from a very technical lift to a pretty straghtforward lift would be easy enough. Not to mention they already pull from the floor and squat, so the minor variations in form wouldn't be hard to overcome. The only real variable that will change is the amount of weight and where the stress is placed.

Take your typical powerlifter and they are simply not geared for explosive lifts after training away from that for so long. Add in a focus on heavy partials and limited ROM's and I think that what you get is a lot of low end torque and not much performance. You end up being how you train, if I can be pretty simplistic about it. So you give that powerlifter a bar and tell him to snatch and hell yes he is going to be terrible. Whole new movement, not used to catching, etc. So your generalization that this has to do with the type of squatting is wrong. It is the type of TRAINING that causes the differences in performance.

Now take a strongman competitor like Mikhail Koklyaev. He comes from an Olympic lifting background, and does pretty well in competition.

But then you have guys like Bennedict Magnusson, Brian Siders, Mark Phillipi and so on that come from powerlifting and are athletic and fast just like Koklyaev. Why? Because they train for it. Form follows function, my friend.

As for the powerlifting squat being a ROM limiting lift, that would be a choice made by the individual. There is no reason you can't do a wide base hip break squat onto a low box, or drop below parallel. The box I squat off of is a good 2-3" below parallel for me.

Why should they learn to squat this way? Well, first of all it engages the strongest muscle groups in the squat better than a high bar or front squat. Keep in mind that I never said anything about people NOT using alternate forms of the squat. Also, I would have to disagree with you about a front squat being better on the knees. I get absolutely no knee pressure in a powerlifting squat. However, since I also snatch and clean and front squat, I can tell you that there is significant stress put on the knee in an Olympic squat variation (overhead, front) by comparison. Now, I'm not saying it is career ending, knee wrecking stress, but the pressure is greater. And if you look at the position of either squat you can pretty clearly see what the difference is. Knees out over toes in an Oly version and shins vertical (or close to it) on powerlifting.

as for feet... well, most people don't have the ankle mobility to take an Olympic lift into the hole. They will almost always pop up on the forefoot. Hence, Oly lifting shoes have a pretty good heel in them, compared to a powerlifting shoe, which will be flatter by comparison... like Chuck Taylors. Flat feet for either variation should cause the same pronation with the knees knocking in. One would not be superior to the other in those regards.