I found alignments to be useful to get new younger players to get into the habit of not simply playing themselves. I had a chart with alignment, bonds and goals, and would on occasion ask a pointed question to focus them on their character.
I undestand, but would still say that alignment is not necessary for that. If we have new players and have our session 0 to explain stuff and make the characters, we sometimes write up some bullet points like "wants", "needs", "pet peeves", "quirks", "no-go's" and so on to help the newbies get into their characters. I think that has made it easy for them to get started.
For me and my older friends, we use it because it's just another idiosyncrasy of D&D. Much like the word 'Armour class' or elves being resistant to charm.
I absolutely get that. In an old group that will probably never be a problem, because when one of you says "that guy is lawful evil" you all know what that means in your specific group/world. At the end of the day, you do you
Just going forward and especially in a video game i think it's a good thing to get rid of alignment.
