It is very known in our time for any project to have a native coin or token, representing it for the community in IDO, Airdrops or other ways. However, you're right to be skeptical about it. A lot of these tokens or coins don’t always offer any benefits for the community, and sometimes they are just a way for the project to raise funds and they never bring something new or good for us.
That is why it’s important to dig into the specifics of what each token offers and whether those features genuinely upgrade the project or just serve as a marketing way for their product or service.

We have seen many successful projects, platforms or services that launched their native token or even a coin with a whole ecosystem, they succeeded in creating something new. The best I could find is TON from Telegram platform.