See here's how I see it. When barbiturates were first discovered, they were considered a miracle drug and prescribed like candy. Seriously, any ailment you had, barbs could fix it - anxiety, insomnia, acute and chronic pain, RLS, migraines, seizures, etc. They worked really well for a lot of various medicinal purposes.
Then they started killing people left and right. Or, what I should say is, people would abuse them, overdose and die (celebrity deaths like Jimi Hendrix and Marilyn Monroe are two that I can think of off the top of my head.) This isn't the drug's fault, it's definitely not wise for people to take unnecessarily large doses of barbs and/or combine them with CNS depressants. Also, barbiturate withdrawal is definitely shittier than benzo w/d, if you can believe it. Benzos are often prescribed to people attempting to taper from barbiturates - it is a terrible withdrawal that can sometimes be fatal. Benzos were essentially introduced as a safer alternative to barbiturates, a drug that helps with a lot of the same stuff that barbs do but has a lower toxicity.
All that being said, the only experience I have with barbiturates is having access to a full bottle of Phenobarbital last summer. Oh man, those were some great times. Phenobarbital feels like a longer lasting, much stronger version of Diazepam. Just total muscle relaxation and anxiety relief and they also provided some euphoria, which most benzos do not. Unfortunately, some of these barbs ended up in the wrong hands, one of my old dumbass friends (who I no longer associate with) ended up overdosing on too many barbs + CNS depressants at his fucking parent's house. There was a huge scene, cops, paramedics, everything. He did end up alive, but I guess if there's a lesson to be learned from this, it's that if you're going to take barbiturates you better fucking well know what you're doing.
Benzos work very well for their intended purpose, but there is no doubt in my mind that some people need barbiturates instead. I kind of wish barbs were easier to get a hold of, I'd be interested in trying some of the shorter acting ones. Seconal sounds really nice. But yeah, basically impossible to get a script for lol.