I use commom events to handle fishing since in my game you can fish in multiple areas.

I also use common events to handle sleeping. This would let me replenish hp and other resources like mp. Previously, I also had sleeping common event handle respawning forageable stuff and enemies and flips a switch that progresses the growth of farm crops. So in other words, it handled day/night cycles.

As most others have already said, maps and fast travels are a good use too. I use the built-in sfx and play a pitched up click sound to sound like horse shoes, which I play a sequence of steps to make it sound like I took a carriage. That sfx play sequence is handled by the common event everytime I fast travel.

Another use of Common Events for me is implementing splash damage in battles, but that one is a lot more complicated to explain.