That excavator is one nice multitool though! 
Indeed it is. Useful in so many ways. Digging, lifting, dragging, carrying, leveling, crushing, demolition, work platform, and then some. Just build or add extras as needed - plenty of fasteners and hydraulics to go around. Forks to use as a forklift is high on the wishful thinking list. (Can't really justify the expense, but it would sure be great at times). I've even used it to put boats from the sea and on car trailers.
I am curious--how come wheeled excavators seem to primarily be a European thing? I can say, out of the hundreds I've seen in my lifetime, only a couple were wheeled.
I'm just a hobby digger so I can just add my own observations. They are fairly rare here too. Being self-moving along normal roads with half decent speed skips the entire trailer moving step used with tracked ones. Thus they make sense for small jobs all over, as a tool carrier, or if the jobs happen to be along the road as in various roadworks. (That is where I see most of these around - as did this one in its previous life). If off road capability is not important the added speed and road driving makes them quite versatile.
Compared to a tracked one the center of gravity is higher, and thus less stable - and not all that suited for terrain driving. That is compounded by air filled tires which are springy compared to tracks. Another reason might be that they cost more than the tracked ones.
Around here I think the main competition comes from Scandinavian style tractor diggers/ backhoes. They are even more versatile but at the expense of digging capability. I looked for used one like that originally, but even the used ones were silly expensive. (Hydrema, Huddig, Lännen).
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