Pointless? Yes. But most pointless things tend to be fun. Which is why we do it. Drag racing is also quite technical with a seemingly endless amount of ways to improve times. I've yet to take 10 or 15 PSI from the rear tyres as has been suggested for better traction.
Both of those are high up the list as why we spent a lot of time doing it. Other reasons were it was dirt cheap, meant we could use our road cars, which brings the cost down even further , there was no need to join clubs or have a lot(any
) expensive paperwork, etc etc.
There's the fun of proving stuff for yourself; we were repeatedly told that a burnout was pointless on road tyres(barely legal 205/60 13s run at about half the normal pressure) at out our power level, but although it wasn't worth much time it was
really good for consistency. Getting a shitty looking, stock 2.0l Capri to spin both back wheels is good for psyching out the bloke in the other lane
This was back in the early nineties, when a busy RWYB cost £20 and you could expect well over a dozen runs in a day. Twenty wasn't unusual. The last one I went to, 4 runs was considered good