I believe it's useful for the flashcard scene. All current Nintendo 64 flash cards (64Drive, everdrive64 etc) require a hardware CIC chip. I believe there's a different lockout chip between NTSC, PAL and certain games like Jet Force Gemini.
All flashcards have either the CIC required to be soldered on (destroying some genuine N64 game) or has a port for a cartridge to be plugged in (so the CIC maybe accessed non-destructively).
Once the lockout algorithm is discovered, they possibly no longer need the dedicated chip. (not sure about this part)
Cool. It's funny to think there's still an active N64 flashcard user base, since emulation for the N64 has always been pretty decent. My first foray into console hacks was with thick first gen PS2's, and all the ones I've bought over the years have basically died of old age, even with manual maintenance and cleaning, so I sort of stopped caring about the hardware. Makes sense that the older consoles with a longer shelf life would still have a lot of people who care about the real hardware.
All flashcards have either the CIC required to be soldered on (destroying some genuine N64 game) or has a port for a cartridge to be plugged in (so the CIC maybe accessed non-destructively).
Once the lockout algorithm is discovered, they possibly no longer need the dedicated chip. (not sure about this part)