I would reckon looking at these kinds of things through religious lenses is actually VERY useful.

I don't follow sportsball, but there are masses of population and massive institutions that are built upon for and on sportsball.

So, seeing large changes or shifts within sportsball can be useful in gleaning some sort of trend.

While, I don't fully follow the gp comment, I can see the other side of yours.

It's more like following astrology - entirely irrelevant to reality.