I don't know.. saying "Alexa movie mode" and having my hue lights dim really does make it nicer. Is it a must-have or a need? Of course not, it's just a nice to have IMHO.

I also use Alexa to set reminders, get Roomba to clean specific rooms (or the whole house) and I use it constantly to control Spotify.

You can argue that Alexa is spying on me or whatever but i'm not sure how that's worse than the iPhone I carry in my pocket literally everywhere I go...