MSDOS.SYS isn't all that useless. For example, check out the following options that can be added under the Options header of the file.

BootDelay
This value of this option denotes how many seconds your PC will delay during the boot process. The default value is 2, a speedy value is 0 and an annoying value is anything greater than the default.

Example:
BootDelay=0

Logo
This value of this option is 1 if you want to see the ugly Windows logo everytime you boot and 0 if you want to see the DOS stuff at boot. The default value is 1.

Example:
Logo=0

AutoScan
I believe you can turn off the automatic ScanDisk function at boot by adding this line with a 0 value. Keeping the default value of 1 and ScanDisk loads on boot when you don't shut down Windows properly.

Example:
AutoScan=0