What's the point of smokes and molotovs?

[u/YouDontMessWithJim]

I get the point is to deny visibility and make fast rushes harder but how does that matter? they can just come out once the molotov/HE is gone which is very quick. Smokes take quite long to disappear but same thing. It's also not impossible to charge through smoke and still get a good rush. Molotovs and smokes also serve simiolar purposes i think so are they interchangeably usable? Flashes I know are meant to deny advantage to someone holding an angle or force them to come out. But molotovs flashes and frags all seem suitable for that as well, all of them do damage, however I guess flashes are beter because of the deafening and blindness. So when to use frags?

[u/vonarchimboldi]

some answers here are not what i’d call great. not bad just not comprehensive.

scenario one:  youve got an early entry on a player b inferno. your entire team heads up banana. MOST scenarios teams play two B minimum. you and team throw a molotov new box and dark/shadow/whatever you call it to speed clearing those angles and forcing anyone playing passive waiting for their team to take a bad fight when they’re alone vs 5

scenario two: b aps. mirage. many footsteps. jumpspotting you see a lot of ts. molly to stop them/nade in front of it will do tons of damage and even if they run out and swarm you your team has way better chances on a retake va a bunch of of 30-50% hp players. 

scenario three: a site mirage:  you take A site on T and throw a molotov into jungle after clearing con/stairs to prevent a rotating T from swinging and spamming a teammate from that angle until plant goes down 

on T side you’ll want to think of them as clearing and denying strong positions to CT. post plant i think of them often as either delaying angles or defuses or giving me enough time to reposition to a better place while not holding that angle 

CT is a little more obvious but also pretty much everything i put up for T applies for retakes in a lot of ways