For me at least, it is useful for different things, but they are mainly about writing stuff. It is much easier to copy a couple of equations from your reference

For me at least, it is useful for different things, but they are mainly about writing stuff. It is much easier to copy a couple of equations from your references and use something like image to latex to get the source without having to write them yourself. Especially for complicated equations. It makes it much faster to have discussions with other people online. It makes writing notes, copying equations from textbook .etc. was always stupidly time-consuming if you end up writing them in latex. Also, for a lot of people with addiction to think on blackboard where you don't have to worry about anything else. It is easy. Take a photo of what you did, erase the board, write new things and take another photo. And when you are done and want to preserve this in some notes or copy to paper, just use an equation recognition tool and your life is much easier. It is a productivity tool that saves and efforts, it will not be going to make you a super researcher/scientist.