You will get a varied response here from those who actually do the technique to those who have heard about it or refer to it from how it was ten years ago. For current information I would go to their discussion board. There you can ask that questions and get answers from those who are for the most part current in the philosophy.
Right now there is a big emphasis on the long distance swimmer and the triathlete. However there are those who have adapted the techniques to what they swim. TI covers all strokes and not just freestyle also. see www.totalimmersion.net for answers
Just my pennys worth on T.I. I have followed total immersion since it first came out. I have all their videos and their books and swim their drills and use them in my coaching to great sucess.
There can be problems in the results of following T.I. Specifically the strong emphasise on maximising stroke length in the early years led a lot of swimmers to take too few strokes. This would result in a lack of momentum, a dead spot in the stroke cycle. This emphasis is less in their latest info. Stroke rate can be slowed down too far causing loss of continuous propulsion.
I have noticed that T.I. freestyle swimmers often will enter the hand into the water, then on the reach the hand will go up to be near the surface and the hand will be held in this position for too long before the catch. When the hand is in this position near the surface it has to be moved a long way to get into the catch position and with most swimmers they will push down on the water during this movement thus pushing the upper body upwards.
This whole method of entry makes a fast catch, needed for sprinting, impossible.
Total immersion makes little mention of how the hand and arm should move through the water. This is important tho.
I always use their drills to teach balance and arm recovery to my new swimmers and revisit this skill with my better swimmers. T.I will work miracles on choppy, high turnover, flat swimmers quickly making them much smoother and getting them to body roll.
T.I has a big emphasis on doing drills slowly, and while this is good to begin with always swimming - Long, Slow and Smooth makes you really good at being long, smooth and slow. Balancing total immersion drills with fast swims, build and pace sets with zoomers would produce a better result, I think.
I really like the T.I progressions for fly and ***. So, to sum up, i think that total immersion is valuable, i use elements of it every time i swim, but also use good info from other sources. as with everything no one person has the complete answer.
