Highly prestigious scholarships and fellowships provide substantive financial support as well as invaluable contact with significant professional networks.
Applicants who do not attain a particular scholarship or fellowship still gain significant experience in terms of various possible next steps. For example, if a person is applying to graduate school s/he will already have begun writing the kinds of personal statements and gathering the letters of recommendation that are required in that process. The same is true for many job applications. Moreover, all serious applicants learn much about themselves throughout the process.