Prior to RFI, this was the only option if recovery failed, the database could not be repaired, and suicide of the log was not desirable. It is still the preferred option for recovering the database after failure during online recovery if a) the entire database is marked suspect due to thresholds being exceeded, or b) system table(s) are corrupt. It is also the preferred method whenever the absolute need for physical and logical consistency overrides all other concerns.
It is highly recommended that you run dbcc checks prior to and following a dump, to ensure that the backup is valid. Refer to Backup and Recovery in the System Administration Guide for details.