It would function great as a scrollbar for long-form documentation on desktop. The built-in browser scrollbar only conveys your current position in the document. A minimap lets you, for example, quickly flick directly to the next section header even if it's currently off-screen. It would also help reduce cognitive load if you're trying to alternate back and forth between two sections of the same document.
I don't see how this is useful. It reminds me of the redundant scroll indicators on the top of some websites.