Well, it depends on how you need to access the data. If you only have a Laravel project with controllers and blade files there is no need for a REST-API since you can query the database directly.
If you have a frontend app/website and you need to fetch data then it makes sense to create a REST-API. The API itself is also just controllers that query the database directly.
Also if you need to use the same backend for different frontend systems it makes sense to create one API which you can use to collect the data on a single place
@lirone I think you are confusing something here. It depends on the type of your app, but a REST API only really makes sense, when (the name already says it) you want another application to be able to communicate with your app, like a mobile app for example.
