Is there any use for promoting to a rook or bishop instead of a queen?

I mean, if the option's there, then there has to be a use for it, right?

.1% of puzzles have this yes

also you don't always have to rub it in; make a rook not queen when you don't have to do it.

Yeah, but it's useful to have the options there when you need them.

Yes.  some positions will be stalemate if you choose a queen but allow the opponent's king to move if you pick a rook or other.  Also a knight can be dropped into an existing fork, which may be more to your advantage than a queen, though that is going to be exceedingly rare.  Some people under promote to force their opponent into a tough decision as well: its obvious you need to capture the queen that just promoted and then lose the piece that captured, but what if they made a rook, is it still worth the trade? or a bishop, what then?  

All these situations come up.   Most of the time, its going to be a queen, though. 

To avoid stalemate mostly. 

Can you give an example of a board where promoting to a queen causes stalemate but promoting to rook/bishop doesn't? Sorry, I'm having trouble visualizing this.

Promote to a queen or knight, especially knight if you already have 1 or 2, multiple knights are useful.

The simplest example.

Can the diagonal h5-e8 be explored directly by white, as in match 1.e4 f6? 2.d4 g5 ?? 3.Qh5 #, a mate exactly on this diagonal.

This position occurred in a real game. If White promotes to rook or queen it is stalemate. If white promotes to a knight, they will actually lose the a-pawn and/or the knight and gets a losing ending. White's winning plan is this: After the black king moves, they will cover h3 with their bishop, capture the h-pawns, and cross the board, get the black a-pawn, and promote their own.

BTW the real @PowerOfAPawn from chesskid, I believe their name is that because of a famous math theory called Power Of A Point. IK, its off topic but yeah.

I have sub promoted to a bishop and knight to practice against a lone king here on chess.com several times. Over the board I've sub promoted when about to lose to tick off "sub promotion to a bishop" on my bucket list.

Wow that's nice.

It's a very old composition. Hundreds of years old.

if you dont have any other pieces and you promote the pawn to queen, you have to be careful as there will be a possibility of stalemate , thats why some go for the rook, its more safe at that situation.

What nkristic said.  I played a real game last year which I promoted to Queen causing Stalemate but the opponent then showed me I could if I had promoted to a knight.  It’s buried in 8,000 games so I could never find it.

One time I actually promoted a pawn to a knight, and won by checkmate... (This was a game of chess at a friends house, before covid came...)

I see the use in promoting to knights. This is about promoting to rook or bishop.

Ah... Well you could use rook/bishop to stop a stalemate...