The most useful parts of the kit to me are the backdrops and stand. With limited space and how I've decorated my apartment, it's difficult to find a clean plain background against which I can take photos or videos. It usually involves a lot of furniture moving and cheating angles, and then having to put the furniture back. Now, I just position the backdrop where I want and let it hide all my furniture and mess behind it. (People don't need to see how strangely I live.)
The backdrop makes any product photos for online selling look better, and no one can see the dust bunnies that accumulate in the cracks between my floor and wall. There's also the added bonus of being able to use it as a room divider or have it block the street light that slips past my blinds. If I don't want it to be that noticeable, I can easily shrink it down or take it apart and store.
So far, I've only used the backdrops for their simple aesthetic, but there is a green screen backdrop, and I'm looking forward to trying out some effects. When I'm done taking my next US passport photo, I can quickly swap the white for the green and renew my Hogwarts flying broomstick license. I can also get patterned or specialty backdrops and get more creative. My niece and I could have a lot of fun with these:
But I didn't get this kit just for the backdrops - otherwise I'd just get a backdrop. It also comes with easy-to-set-up-and-store lights. The ability to collapse and fold all the lighting equipment is incredibly useful for storage (and portability, if I ever want to take my creativity on location.) And having these lights available is preferable to trying to work with my dim overhead lights and moving all my lamps around. The light sockets fit normal light bulbs, so you don't have to worry about buying expensive specialty bulbs when the ones that come with the kit burn out. Being able to get all this equipment at such a reasonable price has definitely been worth it, and I'm having a blast playing around with it.
