What is the practical purpose of an epsilon NFA?

If for every $\epsilon$-NFA their exists an equivalent NFA what is the purpose of ever using an $\epsilon$-NFA? I am having trouble understanding what the practical purpose of using one would be.

Purely convenience. It's like, in a programming language, why have for loops, if every for loop could alternatively be written as a while loop? Convenience. It's sometimes convenient to be able to use epsilon-transitions, when defining NFAs. For instance, when converting a regexp to a NFA, the construction is arguably a bit simpler (easier to understand) if you allow yourself to use epsilon-transitions.

StackExchange Computer Science Q#77047, answer score: 4