You could easily add an external CD-ROM drive, hard drives, Zip drive, etc.
Only real downsides are the lack of an FPU (although you could upgrade to a full 040 aftermarket if you wanted), and use of LC PDS expansion cards which weren’t as plentiful as NuBus cards.
Indeed, I found this weird cheap SCSI CD drive that doubled as a portable audio CD player for 20 bucks at a computer junk shop, but it was good enough to load Word Perfect and America Online on the second or third try. During my time with the Mac, AOL switched to using "proper" TCP/IP, so you could dial into their service but then switch to mainstream browser and e-mail software. That was before there was residential broadband.
I think the junk shops are mostly gone, probably having moved online, but except for my new computer and monitor, I rarely bought anything new. Even modems. When each successive speed came out, businesses would dump their old modems and there would be truckloads of them, so it was possible to stay one step behind the cutting edge.