Yeah, I don’t think it’s worth adding retroactively to a house, but I certainly didn’t mind living in a house that had one.

I’ve never encountered these myself, but apparently some houses have a similar system but without the external tubing. In those, you would sweep debris under a thing that resembled a baseboard radiator, then flick a switch or press a button or something and it would magic the debris away. I doubt those are as clog resistant though.