ANALYZE TABLE for MyISAM scans the entire table and rebuilds stats, which is saved in (I think) the .MYI file. It is rarely needed.

ANALYZE TABLE for InnoDB does do something -- it does the dive mentioned. The problem is that it may help, may make things worse, or (most likely) won't make any visible difference (except in cardinalities).

Newer versions promise to allow changing the 8 not-so-random probes into (1) more random, (2) letting you change the "8" (there are pros and cons of this!), and (3) saving across restarts.

Bottom line: InnoDB still hasn't gotten it 'right'. Do ANALYZE when you feel like it, but don't hold your breath.

ANALYZE TABLE for MyISAM scans the entire table and rebuilds stats, which is saved in (I think) the .MYI file. It is rarely needed.

ANALYZE TABLE for InnoDB does do something -- it does the dive mentioned. The problem is that it may help, may make things worse, or (most likely) won't make any visible difference (except in cardinalities).

Newer versions promise to allow changing the 8 not-so-random probes into (1) more random, (2) letting you change the "8" (there are pros and cons of this!), and (3) saving across restarts.

Bottom line: InnoDB still hasn't gotten it 'right'. Do ANALYZE when you feel like it, but don't hold your breath.

Update

To re-phrase... ANALYZE TABLE has a temporary effect (possibly beneficial, possibly not) on optimizations of InnoDB tables.

"Newer version": Beginning with 5.6.6 (2012) and MariaDB 10.1 (2014), stats are handled much better, and ANALYZE is now (1) less often needed, and (2) more permanent.