It is designed for portable equipment, power tools, medical devices, and industrial handhelds where the charge profile must adapt to the battery chemistry in the BOM without a hardware change. The I²C bus lets the system host set charge voltage, current, and termination thresholds on the fly, which is useful when the same PCB must support a Li-ion pack in one build and a Li-Po pack in the next.
That means it remains a valid choice for new production builds and is not at risk of abrupt discontinuation.