Most people don't need everything SQLite offers, but almost all programs needs some of its features. And even if you literally do nothing more than storing rows of text, the API SQLite offers is still more convenient than most filesystem API's once you go beyond the bare minimum.
That is to say that there are remarkably few usecases where SQLite isn't better than plain file access.
That is to say that there are remarkably few usecases where SQLite isn't better than plain file access.