>>532041107
It makes the world feel bigger.
It makes each character feel important.
It gives an easy excuse for team-up plots.
It establishes everyone a 'knows each other' basis and explains how gossip could easily get around.
Sonic's group of friends as having a 'base of operations' and an organization structure to it is more coherent than anything in the games and preferrable.
You just don't like the restoration since it's terribly executed.