Wget is a command-line utility that surpasses the Python requests library in certain scenarios by supporting a wider range of protocols, the ability to resume downloads, and features such as bandwidth limiting, recursive downloads, and proxy support. It is commonly pre-installed on Unix-like systems and can be integrated into Python scripts using the subprocess module to execute command-line instructions. The guide emphasizes the advantages of using wget, such as its extensive features and ease of integration with Python, while also noting potential downsides like the need for additional tools, such as Beautiful Soup, to parse downloaded HTML content. The guide also highlights the use of proxies to overcome restrictions imposed by websites when using wget for downloading content, recommending Bright Data for proxy services.