Followers have never seemed useful at all to me. Their only real contribution to the game is from the humor value of stupidly running into traps or being launched into the sky by giants when they moronically rush them in melee.

I was willing to put up with it for the Fallout New Vegas followers because they each had a quest, and I don't mind Serana for her role in the Dawnguard main quest. But I can't see why people bother with followers other than that.

Why do you all like followers, and how do get more use out of them?