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While introns do not encode protein products, they are integral to gene expression regulation. Some introns themselves encode functional RNAs through further processing after splicing to generate noncoding RNA molecules. Alternative splicing is widely used to generate multiple proteins from a single gene.
Similarly, you may ask, what is the purpose of introns and exons?
intron / introns. In some genes, not all of the DNA sequence is used to make protein. Introns are noncoding sections of an RNA transcript, or the DNA encoding it, that are spliced out before the RNA molecule is translated into a protein. The sections of DNA (or RNA) that code for proteins are called exons.
Consequently, why do introns exist?
Eukaryotes might need this diversity in proteins because they have many types of cells all with the same set of genes. Therefore, introns are a way to generate different proteins or different amounts of proteins that are unique to a cell type. Introns might also allow for faster evolution.
Introns serve at least two functions. One, acting as spacers between coding gene regions, they facilitate alternative splicing of genes. The benefit here is protein diversity; it's how our cells can express 100K proteins from only 20K genes.