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Kids getting themselves out of school seems to be the primary use case.

Possibly also adults getting themselves out of work, particularly if your employer offers lots of paid sick time for Covid.

Because they can, or to test security. Also, to get a certificate that they're cured from COVID-19, to avoid social gatherings such as avoiding showing up at work/family or to force work from home.

Presumably you could fake a negative test just as easily as a positive test using the same method as the researchers. The researchers obviously were not covid-positive and thus had no choice but to fake a positive test for their research.

I think it is just a proof of concept. If you don't have covid you would have to infect yourself to fake a negative test. Faking a positive test proves that it is possible to fake a negative.

Some people even want to CATCH covid to get recovery cert. For many people covid infection is quite mild with no symptoms.