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But why go to the trouble of setting up such corporations if you aren’t going to use them to cover you?

I don't know the criminal mind, and those who avoid legal taxation are criminals in our code.

I can tell you with certainty that LEGAL reasons to set up offshore entities often fall into these main categories:

1. Asset protection - doctors and others who are concerned by legal claims set up these entities in order to discourage lawsuits. In many countries, anyone bringing a lawsuit would be required to hire counsel in that country, use their court system, post a very large bond, sometimes pay the legal costs of all parties if they lose the suit, and have only a charging order if successful.
2. Privacy - If you hold assets or conduct business outside the country, many jurisdictions do not have a public registry to show who owns a company. Only the country knows this information. Most attorneys that take these kinds of legal cases on a contingency fee basis, will check to see what assets are owned first. If they find no info that indicates there is a pile of money, or if they determine that bringing a case in a foreign court will not be worth it (see #1), they will pass.
3. Estate Planning - transfer of assets privately
4. Access to investment relationships that turn down Americans because of FATCA - having your assets in a foreign LLC, for instance, will put a different "legal face" on the money and doors will be open that are not ordinarily open to Americans.

In every one of these cases, there are IRS forms to fill out when you establish the entity and when you fund the entity and when you distribute money from the entity.

I do not know the details about Manafort, but the little we know makes it sound like he was involved in tax evasion (illegal) to avoid paying legal taxes and did not report his holdings of these companies.

but the little we know makes it sound like he was involved in tax evasion (illegal) to avoid paying legal taxes and did not report his holdings of these companies

Yes. Not enough detail, and I have no trust in the way Mueller and his enforcer Weissman wrote the allegations.

And to buttress my argument about the way they a) wrote the indictment and b) came up with the charges, I invite an informed and knowledgeable reader such as yourself to the following:

Much Ado About Nothing

It's all about context in the law, right? How to warp the case and blow things out of proportion for maximum theatrical effect.

Once they get this past the Obama Negro Lady "judge", probably 90% of the case will fall apart. Even a hot stick like Manafort ain't that stupid, and he does have money for real attorneys.