ELI5: In statistics, why do we do discriminant function analyses (DFAs)?

From what I gather, it's the reverse of a MANOVA. From a MANOVA, I'm able to see how groups differ on multiple dimensions - and from a DFA, I'm able to see which scores on these dimensions are representative of the different groups.

Fair enough, but what have I really learned from the DFA? It seems like I'm only confirming the results of the MANOVA, which shows how different groups score on different dimensions. And yet it's cited as an important follow-up analysis to the MANOVA. Please help, I'm at my wits end here.