Using the estimation session to highlight missing / poorly specified requirements, or discover external dependencies can be a worthwhile exercise IMO, the actual numbers are fairly worthless.
For what it's worth, most places I've worked at pretend to use points, but at some point directly translate the points to days anyway.
Also in the last 10 years (which is roughly when I started to encounter agile in the workplace) I've not worked anywhere that didn't have its release schedule set by marketing or product or legal. Yet everywhere paid lip service to developer estimation.
Also, also, I've never encountered an Epic which got over-estimated, which kind of gives the game away doesn't it?
For what it's worth, most places I've worked at pretend to use points, but at some point directly translate the points to days anyway.
Also in the last 10 years (which is roughly when I started to encounter agile in the workplace) I've not worked anywhere that didn't have its release schedule set by marketing or product or legal. Yet everywhere paid lip service to developer estimation.
Also, also, I've never encountered an Epic which got over-estimated, which kind of gives the game away doesn't it?