Good models are good enough for me, meta_x_ai, I gain experience by setting them up and following up on industry trends, and I don't trust OpenAI (or MSFT, or Google, or whatever) with my information. No, I do not do anything illegal or unethical, but it's not the point.
The good local model isn't creating a profile about me, my preferences, my health issues, political leanings, and other info like the "great" Google and OpenAI are most likely doing based on the questions you ask the models. Just imagine if one day there's a data breach and your profile ends up on the dark web for future employers to find.
For me though, this would be all upside because I have largely explored technical topics with language models that would only be impressive to an employer.
At this point, it is like asking what does someone use a computer for? The use cases are so varied.
I can see how it would be interesting for myself to setup a local model just for the fun of setting it up. When it comes down to it for me though it is just so much easier to pay $20 a month for Sonnet that it isn't even close or really a decision point.
