For me it's that plus voice-controlled NPR or audiobooks while doing other things (often cooking) and weather for later in the day (while getting ready in the morning). It'd also be temperature control, but I'm stuck with a millivolt thermostat and apparently nobody's interest in selling to us gas fireplace people.

For one, I can use them as a speaker for my non-Apple devices. My household is almost entirely Apple products, but considering I have a few devices I would like to occasionally pair like a PC, it makes more sense to buy a home assistant/speak device from Google or Amazon that will work with everything I own, rather than a Homepod that will work with 90% of what I own, even if I like everything else about the Homepod more.

I have a couple of Echo devices, predominantly I use them for lighting control, alarms, timers, speakers for music and podcasts when cooking, paging out messages round the house rather than yelling down the stairs. My six year old son has picked up that he can use them to call me despite not having a phone of his own, so I also occasionally get calls when out and about asking for urgent Zelda help.