This saved so much time, space and support - where previously we had to recompile stuff, and if you had Maya/MotionBuilder/etc plugin it had to use the right compiler.
Also now even with newer IDE you can instruct the project to use older (or even better - a specific) version of the toolchain.
Also (since 2015) forward/backward (to a degree) CRT compatibility.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/porting/binary-compat-...
This saved so much time, space and support - where previously we had to recompile stuff, and if you had Maya/MotionBuilder/etc plugin it had to use the right compiler.
Also now even with newer IDE you can instruct the project to use older (or even better - a specific) version of the toolchain.