I do lots of stuff via ssh on my servers because it's incredibly handy. I have limited ftp access at uni, and although cpanel is good, it's file program is a pain.
For example, to make a copy of a file in the same directory but with a different name, i have to navigate to it, select it, copy it, paste it somewhere, rename it, select it again, then move it to the folder I started out in. cp file1.php file2.php sure beats that!
It's also very handy for things like setting up and tweaking preferences on
website hostings in terms of your config.inc.php (or equivelant) file
Andrew