The cardboard box is a staple that's unique to all the games, I confess I never use it but I don't want it removed in case I just go all looney.
I barely used it in MGS4 because of Octocamo, but it was a different story in 2 and 3. I'm probably going to avoid using it in 5 just because the game is getting more realistic, which I like. I'm definitely not going to use the distraction boxes during regular gameplay, but they'll be great to fuck around with.