I’ve never been able to work out how a HELOC would be an advantage for me. Like you, if I was going to take out a loan I’d rather just get another mortgage, separate from my primary property. If I needed to do renovations, in this age of 0% APR credit card offers lasting up to two years, I have and would continue to just finance house related things with a “free” loan.
I’ve even considered taking a HELOC to use as a down payment on another property, but in my case that might actually work against me since a lender for the 2nd mortgage would consider my HELOC debt to be used towards calculating my debt to income ratio.
For me it just seems like a lot of hassle, when there are easier and cheaper methods of getting money or financing. Maybe that’s why I associated HELOCS with people who either don’t have savings, the ability to save a large amount of money in a short period of time, or don’t have credit good enough to qualify for large limit cards with favorable promotions. And unfortunately those are the last people who should get a HELOC, as the recession showed.