Are there benefits to Meetup.com, other than one more way to advertise, and maintaining a list of recurring participants? I assembled the `boston-lisp-announce

Are there benefits to Meetup.com, other than one more way to advertise, and maintaining a list of recurring participants? I assembled the `boston-lisp-announce` email list pretty easily (while promising people no noise/BS that would make them regret joining). And I let someone else do the actual hard work of planning and running meetings. No Meetup.com required.