It's just another way of dropping calories for weight loss.
If someone needs to lose weight, the 5:2 method is more sustainable than eating a few hundred calories under what someone's body needs 7 days a week, relentlessly, for months on end. Because only short bursts of willpower are needed, rather than constant, nagging, guilt-inducing willpower.
And non-fast days are not binges. You simply eat around your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. No more, no less.
Historically, I believe it was quite normal to have periods of not eating. And it is very useful for re-setting the fat, salt and sugar sensors in the body, which can become overloaded and addicted with our Western diet.
There is some evidence that fasting itself is beneficial. This is not at the level of being accepted scientific wisdom yet, but for some it is enough that they practise 6:1 for the health benefits, if they are at their ideal weight.