I personally like it, drowns out the noise in the school hallways, drowns out car noise etc, rather than just having to put the volume ridiculously high
It's not just about cancelling noise. ANC systems let you reverse the noise cancelling and let you hear the world around you. When bicycling with earbuds, I like to enable full transparency at busy intersections to ensure I'm aware of my surroundings. Or when mowing the lawn, I activate "Aware" mode which mostly Noise-cancelling, but still lets me hear when if there's a problem (with the motor, or my partner calling for me, etc).