Such will take up less memory space on the camera and will be useful to some. You may shun it, I disable it and decide to crop the image later...
Bob
Other than giving you an immediate, closeup view of your neighbor across the street, does the digital zoom that's built into a camera accomplish anything that zooming into a picture after it's downloaded onto a computer doesn't? Seems like either way you're just blowing up pixels, and the resolution would ultimately be the same.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic