Such barbaric methods makes almost no difference for the victims who will probably die. The difference is the effect on population. If the purpose was to get information, I think there are more effective ways: chemistry or hypnosis for example.
The purpose of information, however, is money. Which adds more data to this: if you're in early 1990s former USSR and you want to steal a great deal of money, there were far less brutal ways to do so... Here's how one fellow made $10bn (no home invasions and soldering irons required...): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_(Ponzi_scheme_company)