Enterprise value takes the market capitalisation, adds total debt and subtracts cash. Buying the equity means inheriting the debt and gaining the cash, so this is the honest headline price of the business rather than of its shares.
It makes companies with different funding structures comparable. Two firms with identical operations and identical market caps are not equally priced if one carries no debt and the other carries ten billion in borrowings, and only enterprise value shows that.
It is the numerator most professional multiples use. EV to EBITDA is the standard cross-company comparison precisely because both halves of the ratio sit above the capital structure and are therefore unaffected by how the business chose to finance itself.