Okay, I guess I finally see the light.
Good examples and I suppose it could be beneficial in some cases, particularly indoors and tight shots. My own take on this though is that these same things can be achieved with spots placed correctly and angular falloffs and distances used to their greatest potential (even though it can be more work). We've also badgered the Devs about real volumetric lighting like IES in Max, Modo etc.. For me it's always been difficult trying to get a fairly real indoor lighting shot with bulbs and spots alone, they just don't cut it, even with indirect lighting.