I think I may have actually known the story of Aladdin before the Disney movie. The movie trimmed down the story a bit - for example, the story as I heard it had the title character hand over the lamp to the evil vizier and still get trapped in the cave, but he discovers a ring that holds a second genie, who allows him to escape.
But that movie became my favorite Disney movie, and I adored Robin William's big blue Genie. I've sort of loved the idea of genies ever since. In Arabic folklore, the Djinn (the plural, while the singular is Djinni - which D&D actually gets right at least when referring to its Efreet and Djinn, though they use the anglicized version as the collective name for all four kinds) are kind of like humans, having free will, but while God made humans out of clay, He made the djinn out of smokeless fire. I thus really like the idea of the djinn being sort of just another people, very much like elves and dwarves. We can kind of get that in D&D with the Genasi, who are basically half-Genies (and while WotC is down-playing the idea that this is the result of true mixed ancestries, I like playing a Genasi with one parent who is profoundly magical).
In D&D, Genies are not necessarily the most powerful elementals, but they are the most people-like of them (or at least they were before they made Aarakocra, Merfolk, and Lizardfolk into elementals. I suppose Azer were always kind of like this). Genies are the elementals you can really talk to and kind of relate with, and who will engage in commerce. They're also typically resplendent and wealthy, and of course sometimes have the power to grant wishes.
Unless you're running a campaign set in the elemental planes, Genies can play the role of a powerful outsider, with the wealth and influence to be a real mover-and-shaker. A genie could be an ally or an adversary, and I think also work very well as a villain's ally who might be turned away from them if they can be convinced to.
One notable change to the four genies in the new Monster Manual is that each now has a Neutral alignment - which is also being used as the catch-all for "whatever alignment you think makes sense for this creature." Thus, Efreet and Dao are no longer presumed villainous, and Djinn are not presumed to be good guys.
Like the CR 5 basic elementals, Genies are all of equal power, each being Large, CR 11 elementals (with a genie subtype). And, as a cycle of creatures, they share similar mechanics, though they have some features that are thematic to their element.
Each tends to have a melee attack and a ranged attack, and sometimes an additional ability, most of which inflict some kind of condition. They all have some spellcasting ability, and each has a 30% chance to have the ability to cast the Wish spell, but only on behalf of another creature - doing so, they can grant three wishes before being unable to cast the spell again for 365 days. Notably, though, the genies don't suffer the "stress" from casting Wish, so they can never lose the spell.
So, therefore, a genie can be a quest in and of themselves, and even a quest that's really at the center of a character's personal story: Currying favor with a genie who can cast Wish is something people all over will probably want to do, and with only three wishes they can grant in a year, you need to really prove yourself worthy of the genie's services.
A genie could make for a great quest-giver, tasking the party with doing things on behalf of the genie before they will consent to grant them their wishes. Another possible twist you could have is that the genie the party is working with is a fraud - that they cannot cast Wish at all, and are merely manipulating the party into doing something for them.
But beyond this, Genies also act as the nobility of the elemental planes, and could thus be powerful and well-connected figures who command a whole coterie of loyal servants.
A genie itself is not a legendary creature, so while you can still absolutely use one as a major villain (just as you can with any of the high-CR humanoid stat blocks) you'll certainly want to have an encounter with one involve a large number of minions. Genies aren't immune to any conditions (except those that are elementally-appropriate, like a Dao being immune to petrification - they're already made of rock) so having creatures that can dispel magic on them or counter offensive spells would make a lot of sense.
Given their high CR, a fight against a genie is probably something you'll hold off on until at least late tier 2, but that's fine, as they're meant to be beings of considerable power. However, there's nothing preventing you from having a friendly or at least non-hostile genie show up as an NPC earlier than that.
At much higher levels, a Genie could even serve as a minion in a fight (though probably not a wish-granting one). They're not profoundly complicated to run, so they can work here, but unless you're just re-skinning the stat block, you probably want to run them as powerful allies of a villain, and give them their own personalities and reason to be there.
Particularly if you have a campaign that takes you across the elemental planes, Genies make sense as the movers and shakers of these worlds. Remember also that these Inner Planes are closely connected to the Feywild and Shadowfell, and generally speaking, most non-Prime Material planes have greater contact with the rest of the multiverse - Efreet might do business with the Nine Hells (and devils might feel perfectly at ease in the elemental plane of fire given their immunity to the heat). Marids might do business with the various aquatic celestials who swim the River Oceanus across the Upper Planes (which, unlike its lower-planar counterpart, the Styx, has no harmful effects if you're not a fiend or undead.)
Interestingly, like many fiends, Genies will respawn in their corresponding elemental plane after they are killed (though it is 1d4 days before they do,) and they also have a 1/day Plane Shift. Thus, angering a Genie is a dangerous thing to do, given that they can keep coming after you as long as you're not on their home turf.
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