Out of the box, it can be useful depending on the infrastructure of your area. I live in the Seattle area and we have a strong Meshtastic network here. I can occasionally even can see ACKs / testing from Vancouver CA. I own a node that sits at home all day and there's always messages being received in the public LongFast channels. The protocol makes use of all nodes for any type of messaging, so private channels also benefit.

As for files, not possible out of the box for most people, but tools like ATAK-Civ can make use of 'data packages' and send them over radio. I've used it to successfully send memes and map files in testing.