for digging into moist soil. the rounded edge slides through the dirt. a square point shovel does not work for digging. it is designed for shoveling loose dirt or moving sand and gravel.
there are various styles of shovels within the same family. for example, a garden spade is a flat nosed shovel, but it does not have the turned up or curved up sides. standard square nose shovels have curled sides to help with the handling of the loose soil. the straight sides of the garden spade allow it to slice down into the soil like a razor.
a duckbill round point shovel looks completely different from the standard round nose 