alt Hacker NewsIn this economy? /s
The other more compelling reason why people would have a rooted phone is to run ROMs that may still be providing OS support where the stock OS has been abandoned or EOL'd by the developer.
Having an unlocked bootloader at the minimum would be required in those scenarios. It actually saves hardware that still works from ending up in landfills.
edit: spelling
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I have a cache of old devices, largely the freebies Google gave out at I/O in the early days of Android. Was prepping them to sell last week and saw most are running Cyanogen (the first big community Android fork). Even then, root was a popular way to gain more functionality and add features that haven't been released for a device.
Incidentally, if anyone wants some collector's edition Google/Android devices...
The first time I walked past a homeless person on a smart phone it took a minute to process - phones are effectively free at this point.
(The first time I walked past a homeless person using a VR headset, on the other hand, was a fucking trip.)