I'm not sure if it is actually a part of the Debian project or just something that grew alongside. Can be useful sometimes, but if your present channels work for you then I'd suggest you might want to do without the 'noise'[1]
[1] http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=106389
PS: never ceases to amaze me that you can download an iso, boot a computer, install an operating system and application software, and do stuff just when you want to without upfront cost (other than time). Debian is a large part of that history isn't it?
Debian was an early full Linux distribution, but it wasn't the first. Debians big (early) contribution was apt, which could install packages and resolve dependencies over the internet and made package management easier than rpm based distributions of the time.
It's a little hard to view in landscape mode but Wikipedia has this cool graphic to show the development of Linux distros.
Linux has come a long way... =)
It would be even cooler if there was some indication of popularity over time as well, e.g. via variation in line thickness or something (...image gets even bigger... ><).
That is quite the understatement. I can remember the shock and amazement that came over me the first time I used apt. It was one of those computing moments that I will always remember.
Unfortunately I also remember being frightened whenever I had to read the XFree86 README and saw the section about video cards setting on fire.
[1] And to a lesser extent xserver-xorg-{input-all|video-all}