For our most recent house purchase, the title company was invaluable -- not for a claim, but for the wealth of information they produced when they did the search. We found out about easements paperwork that we had no idea existed (even from the perspective of the property information system in our area).
I actually called the title insurance company at one point to ask what the heck something was, and was connected to an experienced person who was very happy to fully explain what they'd found.
My guess is that because the history of our house was pretty complicated, the title searcher was relieved to have something out of the ordinary to work on.
The upshot? That title search is really important, particularly if you're buying a property that predates electronic property systems.