How about for backup and access to your repo from everywhere, including the ability to collaborate with a friend/collaborator, or have your code visble whenever need (e.g. for an interview).

It's called "distributed version control", and it's not (and never was) about stars and social following. Those that look for stars and forks and PRs don't do it in the way Instagrammers do it (at least not as much, there would obviously be some validation and penis-measurement like element), but to build a community around their software.