I think a fruitful way of looking at what org mode gives you as... a way to pull together many organizational aspects of your life into one system, as opposed to having 5 different apps that have boundaries between them.
Doing an outline for that presentation next week, but need to put it down now, and don't want to forget about it? Schedule a reminder or due date right there in the document and it'll show up in your agenda. No switching over to a reminder app. Want to log time spent on it? Do it right there. In the middle of all that and get a phone call with a new task? You're a hotkey away from recording that info without leaving what you're working on.
For me it's the integration of all things organizational that makes it compelling.
Doing an outline for that presentation next week, but need to put it down now, and don't want to forget about it? Schedule a reminder or due date right there in the document and it'll show up in your agenda. No switching over to a reminder app. Want to log time spent on it? Do it right there. In the middle of all that and get a phone call with a new task? You're a hotkey away from recording that info without leaving what you're working on.
For me it's the integration of all things organizational that makes it compelling.