At least for me they're compact, reasonably cheap, and yet still much better than a £10 plug in soldering iron from Amazon or wherever. I'm sure if I soldered regularly I'd want something better, but in practice I solder two or three times a year, and don't have space for a workbench with a soldering iron permanently on it, so the point of comparison isn't a full blown soldering station, its the £10 bargain basement iron.