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Architecturally the 386 was a massive improvement over the 286. It had an MMU. You could run it in protected mode, run an operating system that would continue running after a program crashed.

The 286 technically also protected mode but it really sucked.

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The MMU was a sanity-saver even in DOS development using a DOS-extender like DOS4GW or CWSDPMI, where a crash could actually be debugged/output a stacktrace rather than instantly reboot the machine.

A fair-few DOS applications (via DPMI) also implemented virtual memory schemes like a "real OS" - I remember POVRay 2.0 officially requiring 2 MB of RAM, but was able to start on my 1MB 386SX machine (albeit with 1-2 mins of HDD-thrashing...).

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