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On the NASA front, I believe I read somewhere that NASA determined that only 40 decimal places of pi are required to define a sphere the size of the observable universe to the accuracy of +/- the width of one hydrogen atom. It seems like you could file that under "close enough."
Just using 3 is certainly too low of a precision -- unless you're writing a major work of religious literature, of course. 3.1 is likewise unlikely to result in acceptable accuracy on a terrestrial scale. I've always used 3.14159 which is conveniently exactly what I can remember without looking it up and it's always been good enough for me. I don't think I've ever in my life needed to scribe a circle much larger than a couple of feet across at any rate.
You may be interested in reading this: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-much-pi-do-you-need/
Then why did we need to put in so much effort to get to the 100 billionth or so? When all we could ever need are 40, maybe 50 if you want?
In addition to what @Pons_Aelius replied, it is also used as a benchmark/flex for computers, as to who can build a beefy enough machine or good enough card to calculate more digits of pi.
Nobody optimises their computer build by targeting pi computation. LAPACK benchmarks are far more useful, because linear algebra is actually extensively use; nobody calculates transcendental constants beyond IEE754 precision.
Additionally that's not how hardware is designed.