I think another benefit of using the MVC pattern is that it opens up the doors to other approaches to the design, such as MVP/Presenter first and the many other MV* patterns.
Without this fundamental segregation of the design "components" the adoption of these techniques would be much more difficult.
I think it helps to make your code even more interface-based.. Not only within the individual project, but you can almost start to develop common "views" which mean you can template lot more of the "grunt" code used in your applications. For example, a very abstract "data view" which simply takes a bunch of data and throws it to a common grid layout.
Edit:
If I remember correctly, this is a pretty good podcast on MV* patterns (listened to it a while ago!)
