You'll also find SCRs used in DC regulators (usually switching) as crowbar circuits. They short the entire power supply if the regulation fails. The reason is they can be feeding some very expensive electronics (think $10K or more) and the power supply, while expensive, is the cheap part.
And they can also be used as regulators by modulating the firing angle, then following the rectifiers with a low pass filter. Great way to regulate thousands of watts, but may not be convenient for smaller applications.