>The myth is comforting because it moves agency from fallible humans and flawed organizations to an impersonal "mysterious region" of the map.

I think the myth is comforting simply because it was fun to believe and a lot more interesting than the banal truth. I don't think many actually believed it, other than children who mostly grow out of it by the time they learn that Santa is not real. Folklore, ghost stories, urban legends, etc, are fun and a part of who/what we (humans) are.

Back when I was a kid and paid any attention to the Bermuda Triangle myth (do kids still pay attention to it? I have no idea), we didn't have any idea about the details of Flight 19. It just got mushed into a vague "planes drop out of the sky". Because, I think, we didn't actually care about explaining anything. It was just fun to believe in spooky things, as you say.

It is documented[0] that at its peak around 35 000 people were taking horse de-wormer against a virus, not sure if that counts as many or not but there were for sure pretty serious believers.

[0] doi: 10.1007/s11606-021-06948-6