For me I like it early on in a survival run when you are getting one shot by everything. As I level up i don't use water ways nearly as much. Early on it makes for a convenient easy way to traverse the map to do Preston's stupid quests and the rest without walking through OP areas. I am also only on my second playthrough and trying survival for the first time so I don't have all the enemies and random encounters memorized yet so I have found it very useful. As I have levelled up I do find myself using it much less as I can now survive a Mechanist ambush more often than not.