Back when I was in high school, we had a shared pool of laptops stored in the library, and our teachers would reserve the library space for days when we were supposed to be working on laptops. My district had a bunch of Dells with the nipple mouse. To this day I still think it’s probably the most convenient and precise input device I’ve ever used.
I think it works fantastically well. I personally like it much better than a touchpad. It lets me move the pointer without taking my hands away from typing home position.
It's not just for decoration. You can use it as a legitimate pointing device. Nudging it will move the mouse cursor and tapping it with your fingernail is clicking.
It takes some getting used to but you can definitely use it for normal office tasks if you wanted to. That being said, I still personally prefer a mouse. But I have known some people who like using the nipple.
The best I can do, is to steer it slowly. For me, it’s always been the inferior option when compared to a regular touchpad.
Although, I do se the benefit of the central positioning when you need to type more and you don’t want to move your fingers from the home row just to click something quickly.
It isn't a dealbreaker for me, but it really is nice. It takes getting used to, but it cuts down on the need to move to the touchpad or mouse. If you're working in tight quarters, or have mobility issues, or hand issues, it can end up being a major improvement. It's a ymmv thing of course, but I end up using it more than I thought I would when writing.
i don’t care about the nub on mine, but i do care a lot about the left/right click buttons that take up so much of the trackpad area. just gimme a bigass trackpad.