I use it for proxying general internet traffic (such as from your web browser) using the SOCKS5 proxy described in the article. Combined with FoxyProxy or similar it's nice if you want certain traffic (such as to a certain domain which only allows certain IP blocks) to flow from a certain host based on things like the domain.

In essence it is what you mentioned, these are a few practical uses:

- Streaming region locked content from overseas.

- Permanent reverse-tunnel for remote-access with autossh.

- Increased security compared to making services visible to the internet.

- Downloading scientific articles using my university's connection as a proxy.