I use iNaturalist to log my observations and I think one benefit of such platforms is the large number of eyeballs available: casual observers see things not captured in more formal scientific field work.

This happened to me: I saw an unusual bee while walking in a nature reserve. I posted it on iNaturalist and it got identified as a seldom seen bee. A bee researcher contacted me to get the location for a field study, resulting in a paper that documented the bee's natural behaviour.

Other iNat observers have spotted moths and insects that haven't been seen for decades, for example. In this way, citizen scientist are helping scientist to find out more about nature.