In today’s world where ‘data is the new oil’ (as said by Clive Humby), not giving proper attention to data-driven testing is not justified. If you have an application that needs data input in some form then it will require data-driven testing.
Additionally, when during testing your application – there are testing scenarios that require multiple permutations/combinations of input data in your application, then you might have to think of using a test automation tool for automating them.