Gears 'distribute' kinetic energy in that they allow you to take a rotational motion on one axis and generate a rotational motion on a different axis. That can be a parallel, offset axis, as in this case, but it can also be at a different angle, using angled or crown gear teeth. So yes, that's one use, certainly. They let you reverse a rotational direction, too - turning clockwise into anti-clockwise.
But the main thing they do is let you trade angular distance of motion against angular force, or torque - same as a lever does, and much like how a pulley system lets you trade off linear distance of motion against linear force. I can make a gear system that multiplies the effective force I can exert by 50, at the expense of my having to rotate a crank on the input shaft fifty times for every time I want the output shaft to rotate. Or I can use it the opposite way around and make an output shaft spin fifty times for every rotation of my input shaft, at the expense that I have to exert fifty-times the force to overcome any load on the output shaft.
