But it's not just finding the right media, many microbes are obligate symbionts meaning that we'll never be able to culture them in isolation. I vaguely recall a spc. of Mycoplasma that would only grow in the presence of a peptidoglycan matrix containing E. coli (though it's been a while, so I could be misremembering). For situations like this, having the ability to do raw analysis on environmental DNA is hugely beneficial.
But it's not just finding the right media, many microbes are obligate symbionts meaning that we'll never be able to culture them in isolation. I vaguely recall a spc. of Mycoplasma that would only grow in the presence of a peptidoglycan matrix containing E. coli (though it's been a while, so I could be misremembering). For situations like this, having the ability to do raw analysis on environmental DNA is hugely beneficial.