[PeterisP]

The common use case is to want to set the time so that it runs not right now but later - either because for noise reasons, or so that it finishes when you're back home to unload.

Also, of course, there's the "internal scheduling" of various different activities that the machine is doing; you can do that mechanically but IMHO it's simpler now to do that with a cheap microcontroller.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

All washing machines I bought in the last decade had delayed start mechanism.