Even Assange's example is suspect. The goal is not to release the documents eventually but to release the documents if he dies under suspicious circumstances. That is not really something that can be done with cryptography.
Here is one possible use case: imagine an offline digital cash system, so i.e. the bank will not accept the same token twice. To protect against an unscrupulous seller, the buyer pays by giving the seller a time-lock puzzle with the tokens; if the goods are not delivered by some deadline, the buyer will deposit the tokens at the bank, thus preventing the seller from doing so. Otherwise the seller solves the puzzle and makes the deposit. This is basically an anonymity-preserving escrow service, though in practice there are probably simpler approaches.
Here is one possible use case: imagine an offline digital cash system, so i.e. the bank will not accept the same token twice. To protect against an unscrupulous seller, the buyer pays by giving the seller a time-lock puzzle with the tokens; if the goods are not delivered by some deadline, the buyer will deposit the tokens at the bank, thus preventing the seller from doing so. Otherwise the seller solves the puzzle and makes the deposit. This is basically an anonymity-preserving escrow service, though in practice there are probably simpler approaches.