I feel the same. When I learned about them, I used them for easy access (although a third party app was necessary at the time) to certain websites: I have several house plants at home. I made little signs with the latin name of the plant and a QR code that leads me to a website where care instructions are shown (how many times the plant has to be watered, how much of sunlight these plants have to be exposed to, etc.). It came handy sometimes, especially when leafes were turning yellow. Care instructions could be looked up easily.

Also on business cards: On the back side of my business card there is a QR code that - when scanned - puts the contact information into the adress book. This came in handy a few times when you have to work with workers at a construction site.

I think the major breakthrough came with the Covid pandemic, where these codes were everywhere. Also, later phones do not require a third party app which lowers the entry bar to make use of these codes significantly.

What I don’t like is that restaurants start to use them exclusively, as a substitute for a printed menu.