Why would I need Roon?

Benefits of Roon:

1. Let’s you mix your collection of personal files with hi-res streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz
   
2. Let’s you transcode / upsample music from streaming services  (for me transcoding to DSD has sonic benefits)
3. Roon Radio will basically give you lossless Pandora
4. Lots of streaming endpoint clients
5. MQA decoding in software if your DAC doesn’t support it natively

Thanks for the additional information.
I’m probably being cranky because I feel like every time I turn around there’s another *subscription* on my visa bill, and this adds on top of other services.
Ok, got that off my chest — I’m very prickly when I think I’m being nickel-and-dimed, but you’re truly evincing some major benefits to Roon. Seems worth a try.
That said, the alternatives look interesting, such as the Bryston. But…I just bought a Node…so…[scratches head].
Again, with the Node, I plug a thumb drive in the back and I have a lot of files right there in the player.
But, as folks have said, the interface is not as good…
Ok, I need to research what you’ve all said. Been driving all day.

Roon has been a game changer for me. Especially after the horrible way iTunes /Apple music handled my ripped/downloaded files. Love it. 

@big_greg Whoah! Now thats  a lot of text and acronyms on one website! I have no idea what they are talking about.  I’m afraid BubbleUPnP is way over my head and I’m paying for the privilege of staying dumb by using Roon for the same reason I have paid for my Apple products all these years. I bought the lifetime subscription within a week of the trial period.
Dumb is also why I can’t go for any of those, supposedly superior, raspberry pi products and just shelled out my dummy tax for a Bluesound node 2i. I wish someone bundled those pi products up with an easy to understand list of features like an ordinary consumer product. The bluesound node is overkill for what I need. I just want a high-res Roon ready “airport express” with one Digital and one rca and/or XLR out. 

I don’t even have Roon but I’ve seen it demoed at HiFi stores. In addition to what’s been mentioned, I thought coolest feature was wiki-like info available with every selection and ability to jump around to like selections. 

It kinda reminded me (in a music context) of way i felt when I discovered the internet in the early days (pre-Google, pre-aol, I’m talking Gopher exploring days circa 1992ish — whoa! There’s a whole infinite world of information out here! Radical!