I suppose because sexual gratification is one of our species basest instincts, and due to the way our brain evolved to be social creatures, we have mirror neurons[1] which fire when we observe actions as well as when we perform them. For this reason, viewing sex can emulate (to an extent) our primal desire to mate.
Everyone has different levels of libedo however, so it's likely that your lack of understanding is due to your own lower libedo not generating the same level of sexual desire.
Or, you are the kind of person where the emotional connection involved in sexual relations is far more important, which obviously means watching people you have no connection to would not arouse you as much.
Alternatively, it could be that you may have decent access to actual sex, which is obviously more gratifying as a general rule.
you might be amazed at how little actual content is consumed, despite the high traffic number.
these sites get a lot of traffic(clicks and page views) and serve a lot of bandwidth(videos) but most users are just clicking around and watching just a few seconds to a couple minutes of any video they load(due to skipping). I think a lot of the traffic just people looking for the perfect scene or something new... there is a lot of junk on those sites these days.
source: i used to manage a number of high profile adult websites.
Why do people like alcohol or any other vice that some group may frown upon? I don’t think you’ll find a satisfying answer here. Different people like different things.
Why do porn sites get so much traffic? Why do people enjoy consuming pornography as much as they do, at the volume/frequency that they do?