Games I own with a spinner:

Baby Pacman (2)
Cirqus Voltaire (2)
Radical! (2)
Whirlwind (1)
Diner (1)
Super Soccer (2)
Baywatch (1)
Godzilla (1)
TSPP (1)

TSPP has Krusty mode, that I believe scores extra on spinner hits, and the spinner increases the jackpot in one of the I&S multiballs....

Cirqus Voltaire has the right spinner that you have to hit in rapid succession in order to score the Spin Marvel.

Hitting the spinners on Super Soccer advances the bonus ball count.

That's about the only rules I can think of for the spinners I have, other than super spinner.

When I designed a paperwood for a Marvel Universe pin, each mode was a hero vs their arch villain. On the screen, at the bottom (under the dots depicting the battle), was an energy bar that would slowly decrement as the fight progressed. Hitting specified shot would do more or less damage to the villain, and missing those shots penalized you by decrementing your own energy bar (which means you have to hit more shots to do damage than when you started).

Anyway, the spinner is a good target to light periodically during the battle to do quick damage to the villain or quick energy recovery for the hero.

Another thing I would like to see (which I've submitted to JJP), is a spinner connected to a wind-up toy, so that when you shoot the spinner it winds the toy and gives continuous mechanical action on the field without ANY code or power to run it. If you have it good and wound up at end of game, the action keeps on going as a "live" attract mode...that uses no power!

Top that!!

I don't care for them on modern games, but for the reasons you're mentioning. The more people I talk to the more I hear "They're awesome they make cool noises!" Kind of sad really, once a central if not THE central target on tons of games has become a noise maker for more expensive premium/LE versions.
Kick back may go down the same road.

Classic Stern rules: Shoot spinners and pop bumpers.

Modern Stern rules: Avoid spinners and pop bumpers.

I kinda dig the Elvis spinner. Each spin adds 1k to value but yeah, not much outside of that in years.

Some cool ideas here - especially a spinner being tied to a mechanical element of a game. My mom doesn't play pinball, but loved hitting the bell on ACDC cuz it's a physical thing you're interacting with. I was happy to see the spinner on AC/DC actually be worth something and they did a good job tying the sound with it, but it wasn't really anything innovative or new.

IMO the best spinner rule of all time is in Star Gazer. I love that when you lock in a high value for the spinner, the shot you're trying to hit is RIGHT NEXT to the drop targets you're trying to avoid, cuz you don't want to reset the value.

Nope, the best spinners ever are on the Williams Grand Prix. One on each side and you really rack up the points when you hit them well. Love the sound of EM spinners when they ring those chimes.

About half of my games have spinners:
Black Knight
Roadshow
Grand Prix '76 - two of the best spinners ever
Checkpoint
NASCAR
TWD Prem

I like the strobing light effect on TWD, but the last ST I played was almost blinding when I hit it, it was awesome.

I'm surprised no one mentioned STTNG and using the spinner to recharge your shields during Borg multiball (if your shields are at 0% you can't score anymore jackpots). There's a good example of tying the simple spinner into a multiball in such a way that one has a real reason to shoot it.

Most satisfying spinners are EM's, when lit. And getting the visceral pleasure of hearing/watching the score reel go nuts.

Relatively unknown spinner rule on a modern pin: the spinner on LOTR is your friend during Two Towers MB.

here's something I had in mind for avengers ironically; a roaming hurry up using the spinner:

After assembling an avenger, the spinner becomes active - 20 spins will start a roaming hurry up shot. The possible hurry up shots would be hawkeye, cpt America, bwidow, ironman, nick fury. When the hurry up mode starts, the spinner is the determining factor of where the first hurry up shot is. If the hurry up shot is made the player cashes in a % of the hurry up award while the another % is added to a hurry up jackpot. The spinner (or black widow) then becomes the next hurry up shot which, when hit, sets up another random hurry up shot. This could continue either until the player fails to make a hurry up or a full blown timer expires - how many hurry ups can you cash in/build in the given time? After all avengers are assembled; the final super hurry up jackpot of what the player built throughout the game will be lit; hit black widow to cash in.