Embedded server is still functional in MariaDB unlike MySQL that removed this in 8.0 https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/libmysqld.html.

There's a number of uses like https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/sql-driver.html#qmysql

Developers (esp me), when changing variables or their values often forget to commit test result changes causing embedded test results to be overlooked.

Embedded development still happening.