It is a self-updating rolodex, Outlook Contacts list, phone book, whateveryouwanttocallit.
I really don't want to bookmark 300+ individual pages that all have different creative layouts, get moved, etc. My LinkedIn profile stays up-to-date, you update yours, that's the implicit deal. And we all profit from it. all being defined as a western work related group, english spoken. this is not facebook. Link your gitbub repo from there, absolutely, good idea, but having LinkedIn as your standardized contact info is very valuable.
is LinkedIn managed in a bad way? sure. But for some reason the modern business world has chosen it to focus on it. Xing and other local players never grew enough. the benefits of starting out it in the US. all the surrounding crap they're building is fluff, their core feature is being a global rolodex. would love to slap sense into their product management team.