Nowadays, most Alpha cards are at least a little bit more expensive than the same card in Beta
Just by being played, the card prevented a player's opponent from casting spells at Instant-speed, forcing them to only play during their turn and shutting down a huge number of playstyles
Instead of sacrificing it, you tap it instead
Simple card draw is good for making sure you can hit your land drops on time and just for digging into more cards
In these decks that have a lot of very-low-investment artifact generation, Oko can function as a supercharged, cheaper Gideon, Ally of Zendikar that gains loyalty to make 3/3s every turn, except the 3/3s can attack right away (because youre using the ability on artifacts that were already on the battlefield) and the Oko gains loyalty and costs less mana
Play Appeal Adds fun options for commander and draft decks