What do we gain from or lose to tradition?

Tradition can be helpful to individuals in society or it can hurt, I believe. For example, religion offers hope for difficult times, but it has also been used as a means to control behavior.

Tradition can relate to small things like the seating arrangement at your holiday dinners. It can also reference a set of beliefs that damage an individual such as homophobia.

In broad terms or in smaller examples, how do humans benefit from or what are the disadvantages to tradition?