I came across this whitepaper entitled “Going from 2D-to-3D: Why Make the Change Now“. In one section the author discusses the benefits of opting 3D CAD over 2D CAD and makes an interesting analogy.
With 2D CAD, your documentation package is similar to a book: nice reading, but that’s about it. The 3D “documentation” package is more analogous to a “DVD”: while it may contain drawing files, it also has a complete video-like quality.