This was it for me - wanted a single box without need for a midi controller attached; and I think both in terms of keyboard notes (for bass and melody) and in terms of drum notes (for rhythm/perc). Digitakt is the first sampler I used that let me freely switch between those two paradigms at will. I’m also playing keyboard parts on other synths and sampling them in, and it’s really consistent to know exactly what notes are playing and complementing/layering on those notes with other samples. 1x16 breaks the trad keyboard mental map for me (requires too much cognitive work to figure out), 2x8 doesn’t.
In my ever-increasingly tortured analysis of whether to invest in an Octatrack or Digitakt, chromatic mode as implemented in the Digitakt was one of the major factors in me choosing the latter.