We also used Home Sharing to access a central iTunes library, stored on a Mac Mini, from various iPads in our home. These sit nicely in speaker docks, and it was great to access our entire music and audiobook library throughout the house.
It seems Apple is trying to move people to streaming, either via Apple Music or iTunes Match, now renamed iCloud Music Library. For us, there is one major problem with this: capped internet useage. When we lived in an urban area, we had unlimited 50/50 Fibre. We moved recently to the countryside, and here our only option for internet access is 4G (LTE). Speed is terrific (have had 75 down/50 up), but we're limited to 100 GB traffic a month. Note, that's traffic - so both up AND down data counts. With multiple iOS devices and Macs downloading software updates, moderate video streaming and general browsing, 100 GB per month holds - just. Moving our entire music library to iCloud, and then streaming back everything we want to listen to, is simply not an option.
For those of you with unlimited broadband, I can see the convenience of doing things this way. However, it's not technically possible for everyone - hene the criticism of the dropping, temporary or otherwise, of Home Sharing TO iOS devices.