It's so infrequent it's hard to even generalise what I use it for. Very occasional government forms, things that absolutely have to be sent by snail mail, stuff like that. What is everyone else printing?
We have a ~10 year old compact Brother laser multi-purpose. Back when Brothers were mostly not full of dark patterns. It was cheap-ish and it’s been reliable. Leagues better than any HP or Canon we owned previously.
People with young kids seem to print a lot too: colouring book pages, pretty pictures, and all kinds of forms.
Pain is that it blocks up if not used for 3 months - and the cheap ink fades for any photos we printed - but cleaning it is really easy, literally stuck the print head in the sink and wash it.
Recipes to mark done parts and note modifications/clarifications.
Text for copyediting.
Checklist to do in the morning before starting computer.
Tickets as a backup (not used so far but if it will be used one time in 100 of cases it works then it will be still useful).
Some paperwork.
And I'll often print out draft writing of mine in order to revise it with a pen. For whatever reason, I'll notice totally different things on the screen vs. on paper.
Second, the only scannable QR code I've ever seen has only been for Amazon returns. Never seen any other retailer or shipping service support that. (I'm sure there are, but it's by far the exception rather than the rule.)
Third, scanning a code at UPS etc. requires waiting in a line behind everyone else, which is often 10+ minutes. If you print your own label, you can just drop off.
So far I haven't exceeded their free weekly page-allotment of 10 greyscale or 3 color. (After that, $0.15 per greyscale, $0.50 per color.)
Also, I'm surprised that your inkjet printer works well with you printing infrequently. Usually the nozzles will clog up or dry out over time if not used.