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I tried to think of a good use for the smart plugs back when they had some deals on them when you bought a Dot, but alas I couldn't think of one use that would justify their cost. As APK said, many contemporary devices are designed to save power consumption. Those wall warts we all use for a multitude of devices are well know historically to consume a lot of energy even when the device they power is turned off, so there has been a turn toward trying to conserve power and not waste it through better designs for the power sources. So the plugs would do absolutely nothing for the newer power sources that stay off until the ON switch is activated on a device.
The holiday lighting sounds like a good use, but other than that seasonal use I cannot really think of another one. Fans are another good use except my fans already came with remotes to let me turn them on and off, control speed, and control oscillation, so I don't need a limited smart plug for them.
Another issue with the plugs is that some appliances and devices have internal clocks that will get reset to midnight if they lose power, so you would have to set the time again. Also devices like cable boxes, FireTV, Roku, etc. will reboot if they lose power and thus take a while to turn back on.
The only smart home devices I currently use are a few smart LED lightbulbs. If you want to control lighting then they are much more useful than smart plugs. At best, the plugs will turn a lamp on or off. The bulbs on the other hand turn on and off, most allow for variable brightness control, and some allow for variable colors to be used. I prefer the smart bulbs to allow for dimming and brightening of lights.
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