it is valuable in the sense that, from what I have experienced, the Google Patents search feature is no longer.
As an example, a year ago, I was looking for a detail about an Ansco Buster Brown folder, and Google Patents came through, found the 1915 original filed document describing the mechanism. No more, though - and I wonder why.
Of note is that the U.S. Patents Office archives public access is now limited to stuff after 1960, as far as I can see, and I may be wrong. A little upsetting if true...