Purpose of genomescope/preliminary analysis of unassembled raw reads

Question

[Ada]

What is the ultimate purpose of using genomescope prior to assembly? I understand what genomescope does but why should it be done?

[GenoMax]

If you are working with a genome where you have no information about the size, ploidy then you want to estimate that before trying assemblies. As you recall, assemblers can benefit from some of that information. If you are working with a genome where that information is known then you are verifying that your data shows similar characteristics.