Filling up your phone with a bunch of hi-res pictures of bar codes, not to mention having to load: 1. QR code app 2. camera app 3. browser app
These things are 100% in the gimmick column in my life.
That is just one use - but anywhere that you see a barcode, a QR code would serve the same purpose. Really, that is all a QR code is - a fancier barcode.
You may be thinking of the marketing gimmicks where when you scan a code, an embedded URL is opened. That use case does feel gimmickky. But that is not their most practical use.
No need to store the hi-res pictures of bar codes; no need to load up camera ap, as that's handled by the QR code app; no need to load up the browser, since a small embedded one appears to open the link, as a rule.
That said, yeah, it's 100% a gimmick. I have only seen one or two problems for which QR codes really made sense, and none of them included scanning a URL with your phone.
1: http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/m/qui-est-tara/les-expedit...
As for personal use, I don't really know. Storing your larger bitcoin wallet on paper could be reasonable.