It's actually quite useful if your application never updates your data and you want a data entry system for free. Downside is validation is a PITA, but for certain things using something like Google spreadsheets will get you a very long way very quickly. You can then build a better data entry system after that.
In my experience the gains made from a quick setup are quickly offset by the amount of time wasted by not having any data validation, and the resulting bad data that gets into the system.
