I've never had to do this for a visa for countries that required one. It was all online.

For US visa you absolutely have to.

For any US visa you do, and you can't take electronic items or bags with you. Costs a lot more too.

A reason I refused to go to Syria a couple of years ago. A colleague who did go said "oh I have a US (i) visa so I'm fine". I asked "how about in 20 years time when you've left a company which will pay for you to have a US visa. He hadn't considered that.

A friend of mine went to Libya on behalf of the US military about a decade ago. He is no longer eligible for a US esta and thus has to get a visa if he goes on holiday.

Last time I went to India I had to get a real visa which involved travelling to an office in London and waiting around for a couple of hours.

It's quite normal for people of "lesser powered" countries who don't have the power of passport that the US and Western European citizens do. Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you would have to fly for hours to a major Russian city a couple of weeks in advance to apply for a visa to visit the UK.

When I went to Pakistan in 2010 it was even worse. Well until I gave up and then used a visa agency which just handled it all for me.

Last time I tried to go to India I went for an electronic visa, and after 7 days of "waiting" they updated it to say "declined". No explanation.