It also allows you to invert the order of the calls so they are written in the order they occur. Instead of paint(sand(cut(measure(wood)))), you can write wood | measure | cut | sand | paint, which is easier to read, especially if it splits over multiple lines or has additional arguments:

paint(sand(cut(measure(wood, 12), 40, :WZ), 220), :red)

wood | measure(12) | cut(40, :WZ) | sand(220) | paint(:red)

IIRC you can do that in Haskell as well, but I forget the name of the feature. Many OOP libraries have started to adopt a chained method call style similar to this, but it is nice to be able to do with any function.