After a lot of research I've come to the conclusion people who swear by these often eat a lot of ready-made food from the freezer. The air fryer cooks it faster and makes them think it contains fewer calories (even though most frozen ready-made food already contains all the oil it needs to cook well).

It's a miniature convention oven. There are foods you can cook in a pan but also foods you can't and must cook in an oven, like pies. It's best useful for individuals that don't want to waste the time nor energy heating up their large oven just to make an individual portion, at least in my case.

Air fryers definitely are very different than ovens or pan frying, it's hard to explain, but it's definitely more comparable to frying in that it crisps up food by removing the water from the outside of stuff quickly.

By this logic it's particularly good at cooking food that otherwise would be better fried, but outside of that it does vegetables like brussel sprouts or small filets of fish particularly well leaving the inside soft and the outside cooked.

Air fryer isn’t the best choice for Chicken breasts, so your point is valid for that cut. It will of course still cook ok. But chicken thighs on the other hand, probably better than a frying pan as you can get the crispyness all over and juicy still in the middle, just like deep frying. The fattier the raw product, the more the cooking choice swings to the air fryer.

I poach mine in the microwave with a bit of water, drain, then shred with forks and add salsa/tomato sauce/etc.

Dead simple. Super tasty. 10 minutes, easy cleanup.

Anyone with an electric oven can be done cooking that chicken in the air fryer before the oven is even up to temp. That is much better.