I may be slightly late to give my feedback here but I’ll post it anyway 
I personally don’t use it too much, more or less than what it is used for. If I do end up using it it’s typically if I enter a topic for the first time and want to see who posted in it and the frequency of posts. I also sometimes use it to see the amount of replies + the estimated reading time. But the other stuff I don’t use.
One thing I do want to say could be improved is the link portion of it. Sometimes the links are just placed there with no description or context, like so.
Maybe it would be beneficial if there was the option to jump to the post where the link is present.
One thing I think it would be beneficial to add…is a section that shows the top 5 posts in the topic. That can be most liked, most viewed, etc.
Anyhow, just my feedback as a regular user. Cheers!