Similarly, I've discussed with a friend the utility of carrying something that "looks like a gun" (in a culture/tech level that has them), even if the actual killing will (or can be) performed by the widget floating above your shoulder, or the orbital cannon slaved to your cyber-eye or brain implant, or what have you.

EDIT: ... and they've just informed me that on their side, this goes back to a line in one of Charles Stross' Laundry Files series, about how the weapons (very visibly) wielded by the Deep Ones in that setting are the equivalent, for our benefit, of a bayonet on an AK to a primitive -- someone who lacks the context to grasp the threat posed by an automatic rifle will still understand "sharp pointy stick".

Same concept, different expressions.