Labels are always constricting but it's a great place for people just meeting each other to start. Especially newbies.

It took me a long time to differentiate between Dominant / Top and Submissive / Bottom.

I am submissive but I don't submit to everyone.

However, I have wanted to experience kinky things. I had to work through seeing being single tailed by someone I wasn't in a relationship with NOT as submitting to him but more bottoming to him. I wanted to experience fire play -- it was a single experience of kinky play... not submission.

It didn't take me long to understand that playing with a sadist can be a surprise if you don't do your homework first... So - labels can be good, especially when getting to know someone prior to playing.