Working on code that only makes sense against production data... our current "small" dataset is 20TB, our real one is going to land about 150TB. These datasets are a pain to get locally, and a pain to maintain. Way easier to just have an account on an attached box you can use from anywhere.
Another perk of it is using tmux and having a consistent environment you can tap into from work, home, the road, etc.
Also, quick & dirty code changes on development/QA environments when it needs to be fixed ASAP.
There's not many uses as you mentionned, but there are times when its really useful.