chances are that they will connect power to businesses like gas stations first, then work their way to residental areas

In many areas, these businesses are on the same grid as residential buildings, so they can't just turn on certain locations. If power is really that important (hospitals, etc.), a business will usually order an alternate feed.

if you don't know when you'll be able to recharge your car next, using it as a generator might not be the best idea

In many cases, power outages last between a couple of hours, up to a few days. In those scenarios, it would be fine. But once you start dealing with emergency equipment (medical devices come to mind), having this option is a lot better than nothing.

Having the electrical vehicles helped, i'm sure, but like they said in the article "While the i-MiEVs could not help out with tasks like hauling building materials or towing stranded vehicles". They basically hauled people around, still needed gas/diesel vehicles for any of the heavy work

We were talking about passenger vehicles, right? Passenger vehicles with an ICE also don't tow vehicles, haul building materials, etc. This was mostly about hauling people, such as medical personnel.

I didn't say electric vehicles were close to perfect, just that they have a lot more utility than most people realize.