Take another look at the 'hitting zone' and we can talk about each region.
My analogy to intentional hits early or late relative to the 'Ding' line is that 'early' equates to club face closed at impact; hitting after the 'Ding' line is like hitting with the club face open.
The upper set of shot shape descriptions apply to 'wind-less' conditions! Play a slice into strong right to left wind, it'll just draw a bit; conversely playing a pull or draw into that same R to L wind and it will tend to hook strong left - and so forth.
Alternatively, you can aim directly at your target in a cross-wind, and hit 'into' the crosswind, and if you hit where shown on the bottom scale for the actual cross-wind speed, the shot will travel on a pretty straight line toward the aiming point.
Intentionally missing the ding will have a slight yardage penalty - 0% - 5% or so in the light blue region, on up to 10% - 15% loss making contact in the dark blue 'hook' or 'slice' regime.
Ding is NOT king in my book, necessarily - plus intentionally missing the ding wards off the VEM ogres.