babel for node.js version 6.9

Question

I don't know why in some project people use babel for node.js. I'm using node 6.9 I can write es6 without any problem, you name the feature, default argument in function, arrow function, rest and spread. Is babel really necessary in node?

The only thing I can't do is using import instead of required.

Answer 1

Usually people use babel for node < 6.0 since those versions don't cover es6 that much.

Moreover node 6.9 doesn't cover es6 totally (ex : async/await functions, import syntaxe, ....)