> Going to the store in person? Or calling them on the phone??? It's not 1874 anymore, nobody wants to do either of those things.
Signal-to-noise. I'd love having a knowledgeable consultant to help cut out the noise.
For instance, I'm kinda-sorta in the market for a new mechanical keyboard for my home office. (I got one for work years ago and might want something a little different.) The price point is enough that I want to have some confidence before an online order. The Internet has tons of data that are nowhere close to giving me the knowledge I need to make an informed decision about whether it will satisfy my desires.
Crucially, I also don't know exactly what questions to ask to winnow the universe of possibilities into something more manageable.
Being able to consult with someone in the absence of having access to a plethora of keyboards would be huge—the feedback is killer.
I suspect books are actually very similar in this regard. The world of books is huge, and having a guide to get you to what's helpful is really important. I don't have time to read everything to get to the Good Stuff.
Going to the store in person? Or calling them on the phone??? It's not 1874 anymore, nobody wants to do either of those things.