They're a waste of time and for min/maxing purposes they will eventually become mandatory. Like most other things in this game they seem to have been the product of a bunch of devs sitting in a meeting going all Michael Bay on the development of the game.
"And then, like, this group has to come along and fight this ANCIENT GIANT DROID! Dude, it will be SO EPIC! And then after that they have to take their speeder through 15 tunnels to this ANCIENT STARSHIP CORE to totally charge it up! And it's all like, KERPLOW! AND EXTREME, right?! And then they get +4 STR."