The use statement works at compile time, require at run time. So if you have a module that does a lot in a begin block and you don't really need it in all cases, then it's clever to "require" it there where you want to use it but don't "use" it. So you don't have to wait for all that initializations of that module in case you don't need it.

update: As I have seen now, this point was already said. But it wasn't as I startet to write my post (I was interrupted while typing).