Since 2019 Google treats them as hints rather than directives, meaning it may still use a nofollowed link for discovery or ranking. What has not changed is the obligation: any link that was paid for — placements, affiliate links, sponsored posts — must carry `sponsored` or `nofollow`, and failing to mark them is a spam policy violation, not a stylistic choice.
For site owners, the practical use is hygiene on user-generated areas: comments, forums, profile fields. Marking those `ugc` costs nothing and removes the incentive that turns an open comment form into a spam target.