If I'm dealing with some nut or bolt that hasn't had its head stripped horribly, I wouldn't go near one of those "universal" sockets. But I do own one, and once in a very long while there is some stripped-headed something I have to remove. Usually, I start with lots of penetrating oil and a propane torch to loosen things up -- under the assumption that the stripped doohickey got that way for a reason. But after that, a universal socket, every so often, will turn out to be a useful tool. It's much like the pair of vise grips I had to use to remove an oil drain plug that somebody at Biffy Lube had bunged up. I wouldn't use something like that every day for that job, and obviously I made a trip to the auto parts store to get a replacement plug (and thanked my lucky stars that the idiot who tore it up hadn't torn out the threads in the oil pan). But sooner or later, I can find a use for some of the most oddball tools.

I just don't use the oddballs every day.