#2 has been a godsend in the custom/HEDT PC market. Many expensive motherboards now come with a "dual BIOS" system that gives you an older known working image to boot from, in case flashing a new version broke something that can't be easily undone.
Another amazing feature is the ability to flash a BIOS from an unbootable system. You insert a flash drive with the firmware file into a USB port, press a hardware button and the BIOS gets updated, even without a CPU socketed.
This is a requirement for any motherboard I purchase now. I have enjoyed the ability to use AMD CPUs that are slightly outside of the generational support or enable features I am not promised.
Without the ability to flash from USB without a CPU doing this requires keeping spare CPUs that will work just to flash.
