It certainly has some applications. I have been suggesting a management VPN to be part of IP cloud as well.
People have trouble arranging secure management of their routers that are on dynamic addresses, behind CGNAT, or otherwise inconvenient to access, and it could be nice to register them in a cloud system so you can manage routers that are not connectable from outside.
Of course the access to that cloud system should be done in a secure way. But remember, when some fault is found there it can be resolved by updates.
2nd factor authentication can be used. This is all much better than having 200.000 vulnerable routers in the field without a way to get them updated.