It would be useful if the driver were able to return the database server's current time as a DateTime. Counting on a client machine's internal clock is unreliable, and there are many cases where a single, definitive time source is much more appropriate

Possible uses:
Create / update timestamps in records.
Calculation of elapsed time since a recorded datetime
Sequencing incoming records coming from multiple client machines
Rationalizing updates coming from different time zones.

Where machines are clustered, this call should always be satisfied from the "primary" machine, or arbiter.