I know where you're coming from, your basic nincompoop is breaking into cars and steals a laptop out of the trunk. Perhaps he has absolutely no idea what a password file is, let alone how to crack it with a rainbow table. HOWEVER, he does know how to sell the laptop to a local ask-no-questions pawn shop that specializes in (a) buying stolen goods, and (b) computers.

I suggest that the pawn shop I've just described employs someone with considerably more advanced cracking skills: they receive several stolen phones and computers a day and have a tidy business on the side selling data and stolen passwords to identity thieves.

I made this scenario up to illustrate that if there is valuable data that can be cracked open, the "market" will organize itself in such a way to get ahold of it.

Rainbow tables require script-kiddie levels of expertise.

i.e. basically none.

That's still a smaller subset than the skills required to steal a laptop. Apparently thats controversial though, judging by the downvotes. I'm not suggesting this is how security should be designed, just pointing out that its not totally useless.