Have multi-speed non-freewheeling bikes ever been common? Prompted by a recent question I was pondering the idea of bikes with variable gearing (derailleur or otherwise) but without the ability to freewheel. Have such bikes ever been widely used?

They would appear to share many of the advantages and disadvantages of fixies but be better at handling hills (up and down) while being more complex.
I read somewhere about a three-speed  internal fixed rear hub, the Sturmey-Archer ASC (hmm, here maybe?; now replaced by the Sturmey-Archer S3X), and people were complaining that it had poor reliability. Obviously if something is not used in a big cycling sport (and has access to its R&amp;D budgets), it has little chances for a wider market effort.