Knowing that I did not use the fancy stitches on my older machine, when I bought my new machine a few years ago, I tried to get one without. No way that was possible, because of all the other more modern features that I wanted, that really were just basic things. One being knee lift.
The only fancy type ones I use are zig-zag and buttonhole for edging appliques. Also, the one that I call faux-serger. Gives a good edge to a cut, not finished piece of fabric.
Some use the fancy stitches for quilting. The dealer had a beautiful crazy quilt style quilt, all stitched with the fancies as a stitch sampler. Quite showy, and I am sure many took that idea and made their own. Also, a basic quilt where straight rows of the fancy stitches were used for the quilting. Not for me though!