Having spent my years climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction, I think your analysis is way off the mark. This is a great way to learn how ELF works (and binaries in general), learn how machine code is formed, etc. Is it an actually 'useful' task, that produces a useful end product? Yes: knowledge. Knowledge that isn't easy to acquire.
You won't ever do this in the Real World (TM), but it's a fantastic way to get into things.
You won't ever do this in the Real World (TM), but it's a fantastic way to get into things.