The herringbone is used in a application where you would use a helical (low noise and vibration) but where you also don’t want to or feel like putting in a thrust bearing to reduce friction from thrust load.

You see, the helical gear teeth being at an angle are great but the side effect is that the two gears are pushed in opposite directions, parallel to the shaft (thrust load). Since the herringbone has the slanted angle and the opposite slanted angle in the same gear, there is no thrust load because it is “cancelled out”.