They can be useful. Suppose you have a linear map f: V \to W. If you want to know if this linear map is injective (i.e one-to-one map) then you can take a look at the kernel: $$\ker( f)=\{0\} \Leftrightarrow \ f \ \mbox{is injective}$$
There's also the following result.
$$V/\mbox{ker}( f) \cong \mbox{Im}( f)$$
which can be very useful because it's easier to work with the image in stead of the quotientspace $V/\mbox{ker}( f)$
These are offcourse a lot of other results but these two are the first I could remember immediately.
It is well known that a vector space always admits an algebraic (Hamel) basis. This is a theorem that follows from Zorn's lemma based on the Axiom of Choice (AC).
Now consider any specific instance of vector space. Since the AC axiom may or may not be included in the underlying set theory, might there be examples of vector spaces in which an Hamel basis actually doesn't exist ?