> The only time exponential backoff is useful is if the failure is due to a rate limit and you specifically need a mechanism to reduce the rate at which you are attempting to use it.

Exponential backoff is applicable to any failure where the time it has so far gone unresolved is the primary piece of available data on how lilong it is likely to take before being resolved, which is a very common situation, which is why it is a good default for most situations where you don’t have a better knowable-in-advance information at hand and the probability distribution ofn time to resolve, and where delays aren't super costly (though knowledge of when delays become costly can be used to set a cap on exponential backoff, too.)