A helicopter reaches what no runway can serve.
City centres, islands, offshore platforms, remote sites, and onward transfers from an airport to somewhere a car cannot reach quickly. The value is access rather than speed, and on short legs the door to door time is usually better anyway.
The regulatory line sits lower than people expect. A helicopter counts as a complex aircraft above 3,175 kilogrammes, or with more than nine passenger seats, or where the minimum crew is two pilots. That changes the operator's obligations, not just the aircraft.
