I find (potentially) hundreds of people willing to help me 'because' to be a great boon for several reasons.
Firstly is you can literally form yourself a caravan replicating 'town' for all intents and purposes. Granted a bit expensive, but seriously, this is a roving band at your beck and call (outside of danger), adding not only convenience, but also a strong regular cast to interact with (imagine the simpsons in scope of characters each with their own quirks and impact on the central characters).
Second, a mobile labor force available for making minor terrain changes for crossing rivers, temporary fortifications, digging trenches, etc...
Third, like I said a regular cast of characters great RP potential. I once had a barber shop quartet follow my guy around singing his theme, heh.
Fourth, information farm. With so many people there can be many stationed throughout the realms reporting back through messengers about what goes about in their localities. Select units may also be deployed for covert information gathering in environments the PCs may be recognized tainting the information (a much subtler trick which can be just as deadly as the standard attack on sight done to death).
I mean really, creativity is your major limitation here.