Yes it's possible, and yes many do it.
One downside, as you mentioned, is increased taxes. If you hold a LEAP option longer than 1 year you can get cap gains rate on it. But the buy and hold counterpart pays nothing in taxes. So there's that. Another downside is you'll miss out on dividends. Not a big deal, but they do add up over time. Lastly, you expose yourself to sequential risk significantly more. If you just happened to buy VOO at the peak of the market, you could hold onto it for DECADES in the hopes it comes back, but if you bought a LEAP VOO call in the peak of the market, you need to hope it comes back before the option expires or you'll have to realize a loss. Assuming you're just planning on rolling indefinitely, and the option doesn't expire worthless, you still should be OK in the long run though.