Woodworking. Tables, chairs, etc. You typically a want a hardwood for these crafts. However, it you're going to make cheap stuff that won't last... pine is fine.
This is a common misconception usually spouted off by “elite” (aka beginning) woodworkers. Pine (white pine in particular) is a great material for woodworking. Much cheaper and more forgiving than harder species, takes stain well, and looks incredible when properly finished. If you think it won’t last, go look at pretty much any barn built over 100 years ago in the eastern US that is still standing. More often than not you’ll find thousands of board feet of old growth white pine inside. Similarly, many heirloom pieces from the same region and period are pine. They used what they had.
The problem is that you can't get old growth pine, you can only get construction grade pine anymore.
I've been woodworking for decades and would never use it for furniture. It moves way too much with the seasons (fine for barns where you can build large expansion joints, but not for my chair), and it doesn't take stain well unless you take additional steps to prepare it beforehand.
Also many/most barns used whatever wood they had available. In my area the insides are mostly cottonwood and the outside is oak.
That's not an argument to use pine. It's an argument to use whatever you have at hand.
Lots of modern construction is well behind the times. Eg most new residential buildings in England are still brick instead of wood stick framing and insulation. At least they adopted cavities! But houses in England are correspondingly cold and damp and cost a fortune to heat up. If only they imported more pine!
Computers. We put a lot of work into keeping certain data scarce and that's at odds with the nature of a computer, which is much better at making copies than preventing them.