[Enginerrrd]

shorter total cable length and a less cluttered environment?

[gberger]

Sure, but that doesn't solve the problem of shortage of ethernet cables

[m12k]

If the shortage is not of cables in general, but of cables that are long enough to reach the current connection point, then a switch would help.

[wlesieutre]

Maybe they have plenty of short cables, but not enough long cables to get to each person from the main network switch.

Adding a switch closer to you means multiple people can share the one long cable.