Do not be fooled by the specificity of the number in the title. There is no finite number of uses for buttons, nor are we sure that what we are about to describe would fall in the exact 4,571th slot even if such a list existed.
The main idea is that there are tons of uses for buttons, and I just came across another one today.
On NPR.org, they have chosen to use political campaign buttons of recently deceased U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy to encapsulate his life. The good (his Senator elections), the bad (references to Chappaquidick), and the failed (his runs for President) are all represented in the ten-button cross section chosen by NPR.