[gppk]

My wife has decades of music downloaded from CDs etc. It's just the music she likes, no ads/distractions/faffing about with networks etc. For her commute it works great to have just an MP3 player.

She doesn't want to listen to other music, she likes what she knows, so the benefit of recommendations etc aren't of interest either.

Just one data point for your question :)

[antihero]

For personal music collection I’ve found using navidrome (and subsonic before that) to be a much nicer solution than having a separate player.

[KerrAvon]

Some people want to avoid futzing with tech for some things to whatever extent they can avoid it. Even some people otherwise immersed in tech.

[MikusR]

There are these things, smartphones or something like that, that apparently almost everyone has, that can do that.

[DocTomoe]

Some people prefer a device that has real, physical buttons and is not permanently at risk of shattering after being dropped (the use case being to listen to music while on the go...)