Well, apparently it makes fishing more successful, (but Minecraft fishing is even duller than real fishing, so nobody actually does it, and certainly not with auto-heal enabled).
It makes farmland wet, but ... so does a dumping a bucket of water in a hole, and that lasts longer (i.e. indefinitely).
I'd never gone underwater, though thinking about it, now essentials is installed I haven't been able to get out of Lava and survive like I did in the past.
The drowning things seems to be hit and miss. I've had both things, where I can drown and where I can't. And this was during the first few days of the server before you went down the tried and tested path of ruining it with installed mods. Might be latency related or sommat.
