Being able to cut the computer out of the use of the device as much as possible is particularly useful when you're on the road or somewhere without easy/fast/polite access to real machine (MicroB -> Transmission -> mplayer—I mean, c'mon now ).

What's more interesting is using it as a low-power. My desktop machine certainly isn't any sort of efficient, so using a couple watts (if that) to run a download overnight is certainly a more appealing idea. Well, would be, anyway if I had a server to run irssi on and no DVR. Still, the less (or, perhaps, more conveniently ) connected among you may find use for the idea.