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[taptap]

I think a floating structure is pretty awesome in itself. I would use it if I try to make an obsidian 3d-printer for serious (you can make a complete array of them without walls in between, this much I tested). Since items don't fall through it, you can make a trap out of it as well. Or you can use them to make cool impressive 3d-waterfalls with floating floodgates. You can probably turn them into open air prisons by dropping a prisoner on top. Or you can probably put it in the middle of a 3x3x3 array of floodgates. The fact that they are floatable linkable furniture seems to indicate that you can use them to stop (and drop) minecarts mid-flight in open air in places where you don't want permanent infrastructure like walls. ... 

[Morcaster]

Being able to control liquids is good for setting up traps or understand farms. Or simply creating a magma waterfall in you're dinning hall.

[Larix]

As far as i can tell, a floodgate works mostly like a door - a door can be made floating (although with more work, because it needs an adjacent wall to build), and it prevents fluid from falling, just like a floodgate.

The notable differences i know of are

- delay: doors react to signals without delay, floodgates after 100 steps. That's actually useful e.g. if you want simultaneous action with a bridge.

- blockages: doors that receive a signal to close while held open (by a dwarf or errant sock or butterfly remains) get stuck in the open position. Floodgates will also not close if there's an obstacle present, but will "remember" the close signal they received and automatically instantly shut once the obstruction is removed. Cf here, "Single-use simple blast door" .

- interface: in the "link a building" dialogue of levers and pressure plates, doors and floodgates are listed separately   If you have only few places where you want a door-like mechanically operated passage and reaction time isn't too important, floodgates can simplify the linking-up because you'll likely have much fewer installed than you'll have doors, keeping the selection conveniently small.

I think floodgates are a bit of a legacy item - they had special functionality to enable irrigation in the 2D version and were just carried over into 3D without getting a new specific role.

[snow dwarf]

Wanted to thank everybody, cause you answered my questions and doubts. 

[Demicus]

Another reason to use floodgates over bridges is due to how the structures react to lever signals. A lever does not toggle most structures, but instead sends an on or off signal depending on which way the lever is facing after flipped. The same signal that raises a bridge, opens a floodgate, and the other way around as well. So a floodgate and a bridge can be used together to make a single lever airlock, or similar assembly if desired.