I use them daily at work. I have 6 images mounted that I use daily and use them to transfer data in a pinch. Without flash drives my daily life at work would suck. Consumers don't really have a use for thumb drives but every device you have has flash memory in it.

I'm in IT and they are used all the time. They have m.3 flash drives even. That's what I use and they are not cheap. Lots of tech stuff need them, it's how you load shit