Compiling and building. A really big C++ project can take hours to build. My 18 core/128GB iMac Pro builds in 2.25 hours what it takes a 64 GB, 12 core Mac Pro over 5 hours to build.

I’m probably on the far extreme of normal, but more cores and more RAM make a huge difference in tasks like rendering, compiling, building projects with huge dependency chains.

For writing some JavaScript web application, the serious horsepower makes a only marginal difference in actual productivity. But on “big” stuff, it can save hours per day, which means savings of real money.