When you don't have much data science skills or when you need to build something quick, you can get started really fast with SAP Predictive Analytics. There are scenarios, like the ones covered by a neural network, where SAP Predictive Analytics is not well suited, but the big question is usually: "do you really need a neural network to address this use case?"
Ability to use built-in algorithms or expand using R. This means that (with training) casual users can take advantage but also data analysts can do their thing!
Integration and consistency with Lumira. Even Lumira on its own has a quick 'predict' functionality (although limited/black box)
Ability to do the analysis and then present visually using the Lumira visualization capabilities
The documentation provides an explanation about what features are available but not necessarily what's happening behind the scenes. On the other side, the "community" has grown since the acquisition and most questions are properly addressed by SAP folks. Since the "product maintenance" mode announcement was made, there wasn't much new content published except on the Smart Predict side (which is built by the SAP Predictive Analytics team)
We have typically used Spotfire for data analysis but decided to move to SAP Business Objects due to its innate connection with SAP. I found Lumira to be good for visualizations but it is not meant for data analysis. Therefore, we have introduced Predictive Analytics to see if it can fill that gap. So far, it's been far less intuitive than Spotfire to get started, and as far as I am aware so far, it does not bring many additional capabilities. I do, however, like that it utilizes the Lumira look/feel and integrates very well.