I'm already storing large files on a an S3 compatible storage service. Other than the ability to move or copy my files to a different S3 compatible storage service, what advantages does S3drive provide? To put it differently, if I plan to stick with my current S3drive storage provider, is there something S3drive brings to the table?
Along similar lines - why would I want to use Rclone instead of S3 protocol?
If you were using S3 service before S3Drive, then you were probably using some tools, e.g. AWS CLI to upload/download data from S3.
CLI tools are great for automation, but doesn't provide you the file explorer feel.
S3Drive with its GUI "converts" S3 to your cloud storage.
S3Drive also gives you easier integration with Rclone, so you can mount or sync from/to local machine or between other clouds.
That also means that you can use S3Drive to connect/sync/manage not just S3, but many other protocols or providers, giving you lots of flexibility: https://docs.s3drive.app/setup/providers/
Finally, at some point you may want to get Storage (https://s3drive.app/storage?q=storage) from us, which is directly integrated with S3Drive, provides sharing capabilities and also gives you programmatic access using S3 (you can create buckets and API keys). It's also competitively priced and there isn't separate bill for API calls or bandwidth as it's the case with some other S3.
I hope that explains S3Drive a bit. It's a swiss-knife, which you can use in many ways.(edited)
Supported providers - S3Drive