[_jal]

> Seems to be a bit useless without it.

...In the same way a dictionary is useless if you want a novel.

[fermienrico]

No, dictionary adds value for most users, billions of people. When you come across a word you don't know the meaning of, you can look it up.

Cookbook metadata DB provides value to a vanishingly small % of the people - primarily academic researchers.

I am not saying that this whole enterprise is useless, I am saying that your analogy doesn't hold up.