Regardless of what your personal opinion might be on content quality, reddit brought a massive number of people together in ways that previously weren't possible. Shared experiences and references although overdone create a sense of community.
And the useful advice was definitely not limited to the overly specific. There were help subreddits and learning subreddits and advice subreddits, on everything from knitting to programming, to general career advice. People gained jobs through reddit and pivoted their career and finances based on redditors support and advice.
Reddit as a platform had plenty of flaws, but it was, for a long time, one of the best places on the internet.