Aside from the more ambiguous access to newer features first, is there any benefit to this over just leveraging the API? Going via the API with your own interf

Aside from the more ambiguous access to newer features first, is there any benefit to this over just leveraging the API? Going via the API with your own interface seems like it's objectively the better way to handle things like this at high usage, since you'll always have priority, wont have usage limits, and you'll pay as you go.