Web rings can be hugely beneficial and are done by many websites. In my particular niche "weddings", the visitor can actually have a better experience if the website is involved in a web ring. It gives them the option of seeing other websites in the same niche but different markets. So they may have started looking for wedding gowns but then saw a useful site on wedding favors.

The traffic in this type of scenario is specifc and targeted which would be a plus to the website owner.