For knights the 3rd dimension is useful, yeah.
A lot of younger players who grew up playing chess on screens find real boards more difficult to visualize.
Discussion
What I mean is the board is 2d but it’s played over time which is the third dimension.
Oh right! That reminds me that I used to explain to people that the VR game "beat saber" is actually a 2D game, because the z-axis (the blocks speeding towards you) is actually just time. Sort of the exact reverse logic :)