That sometimes surprises clients as well. At first there is some gasping when they look at the schematic. But once they see the BOM and learn what it would take to coax a PWM chip to fulfill their particular requirements that changes. For example most PWM chips feature only one feedback path yet you usually have to curb power not just after reaching target voltage but also for over-current, over-temp, external parameters and such. Sure, chips like the TL494 offer two FB inputs but their output drive, frequency and other parameters, well, let's just say we can do better ;-)
However, the predominant benefit is freedom from a sole source. The first such switcher design in my career was what sales guys call a "design-out" of a PWM chip. A vendor (M....) just could not deliver production quantities and my client had a hard and financially painful line stop. That never, ever happened again. It was a very long time ago and this design actually survived the company owner :-(