I was basically forced to buy one many many years ago when cases with no optical drive bays first came on the market. The motherboard I got with that build had the drivers on a CD, and that included network drivers. I had no secondary PC to download them with. I suppose I could have used my phone, but back then the internet wasn't built for phones very well, and I remember it being a pain in the ass. Since then I have used it quite a few times. It's always been a great thing to have just in case I need it.

Actually, the few that still get produced are vastly inferior to the 2000s ones via a SATA plug. We are losing the facilities and knowledge, tolerances are far worse now.

Btw, i've discovered redumper (from the Redump disc-preservation initiative) if makemkv doesn't suffice anymore. The old SATA ones chugged along like nothing, while the new-ish ones errored here and there, requiring long correcting runs. All in all, better get some old notebooks than a new USB drive, if you want to go get ripping.