I think the examples are just too trivial (or in this case, aren't extended to a greater library). Where they really come in handy is if you're using the types all over the place. If I were to create a Degrees class (with Celsius and Fahrenheit) just for representing it in a UI, I'd call it crazy. But if I'm doing conversions all over the place or creating a library for others to use, I would think the plumbing is worth it. Of course, that's true for most "plumbing" in code.