The Chocobostops are useful in Hard mode becase cushions restore HP/MP. And I found the fast travel points quite useful and preferred using them to resting in towns as it's quicker (I just transmuted 40 cushions at some point).
That said it is pretty clear they were playing around with quite different ideas for how the main world should be traversed until quite late on and their role got downgraded substantially.
We are living our lives
Abound with so much information