Just like the power tools you have at home, the more versatile a piece of industrial equipment is the better. Stationary booms, backhoes, skid steers, and even forklifts are designed to serve a variety of uses along with their primary purpose. It all comes down to how you equip the machine.
Excavators are one of the more adaptable pieces of equipment in this respect. In addition to the buckets used to scrape or dig into the earth, augurs, compactors, rakes, rippers, and grapples can be attached for specific jobs. Like a Swiss Army knife, if there’s a job that needs to be done, the excavator probably has an attachment for it.