Essential? no.

Worth it? maybe.

Nice to have control of your own device? absolutely.

I have two devices, primary with root (through Magisk as KernelSU still has some issues for me) and secondary without root. Anytime I have to do something more demanding on the unrooted device I really wish I had root. Local terminal access, ability to disable some annoying “features” (verified app links) and multiple other things I use daily make it worth it for me.

EDIT: I saw mentions of custom roms in other comments. I have a custom rom installed (AOSP based). If I was on a stock rom (or god forbid something like MIUI) root would be a must for me.

Sort of. Already mentioned classicshell allows for some customisation. Things like FancyWM introduce window tiling to the os, but none of it is comparable to what android launchers can do.

Also an obligatory linux mention. If you do not depend on certain, windows only, applications, Linux provides much more customisation. Different desktop environments can be though as something analogous to android launchers.

That’s one thing. Also adding sources manually. It won’t the the issue when someone is there to help, but websites disappear and somebody has to update those lists.

But, but… It looks kind of nice. Honestly I’m wandering what would it taste like.

I love this. Thank you so much.