what is the usefulness of these different view options? tiles, details, thumbnails, icons, and list?

Answer 1

Icons view is the most basic view, filenames and icons.

Tiles gives you some more info, such as the size and filetype.

Details gives you a lot if info on the files in a list format.

Thumbnails is useful in folders with a lot of pictures, it gives you a preview of most picture files.

It just depends on how much information you would like to see. Tiles is good for most folders, but thumbnails is better for folders with many pictures or videos.