One recruiter reached out to me when I was fresh out of college, and brought me in for a meeting. He then suddenly stopped responding in an email thread and I never heard from him again.
Then again, that's a one-time experience. But my time with the recruiter was as wasteful as time spent posting my resume on Monster and other job sites.
Recruiters use face to face meetings to gauge how well you would do in an interview. Your best use of that time is to ask the recruiter for valuable interview advice, what questions to expect, and how to answer those questions.
Yes. The one valuable ability that is exclusive to a recruiter (and any other deal broker, like real estate) is to abuse their position as a trusted mediator to slyly violate confidentiality agreements to help the deal close: tell the company what salary what employee will accept and any competing offers, tell the employee about what the interviewer wants to hear, etc.
That is a double-edged sword, though, so be careful with it.
The recruiter (or any mediator) is a valuable tool to help the weaker side of a negotiation close a deal. Know which side you are.
Then again, that's a one-time experience. But my time with the recruiter was as wasteful as time spent posting my resume on Monster and other job sites.