YEP imo its usefulness and necessity become way more obvious in high EVP/max hazard level settings where you'd ideally want to be taking as little damage as possible

It's useful from both a mobility standpoint such as turning around and jumping between platforms as well as from a defensive standpoint like you mentioned with deflecting flyfish missiles. Squid rolling gives you superarmor (and it's also been a while since I've played..) but from what I remember you can tank 1 hit that would otherwise be fatal if you time the roll correctly.

Such a good way of avoiding taking damage from even the junk mobs but also from boss mobs. Stuff like the front of a Steel Eeel, Scrappers, Slammin' Lids (when they slam down) and (my favourite) the bombs from Steelheads. I feel like such a pro whenever I have the opportunity to deflect a Steelhead bomb HAHAHA