To me the obvious use case is to first use the file command but then, when file returns "DATA" (meaning it couldn't guess the file type), call magika.

I guess I'll be writing a wrapper (only for when using my shell in interactive mode) around file doing just that when I come back from vacation. I hate it when file cannot do its thing.

Put it this way: I use file a lot and I know at times it cannot detect a filetype. But is file often wrong when it does have a match? I don't think so...

So in most of the cases I'd have file correctly give me the filetype, very quickly but then in those rare cases where file cannot find anything, I'd then use the slower but apparently more capable magika.