Having diagnostics on the switch can be a big plus. I wired a long run, partly underground, myself, and it was erratic. I had two parallel cat5e lines, and I could only use one.

After I got the better switch, it was able to tell me approximately how far along the cable the fault was, which was enough to narrow down the problem. I checked bend radius and re-terminated, and problem solved.

So nice to work with good equipment. It turns voodoo into engineering.