Comment by ykonstant

The answer is historical evolution. To you, the problem may appear arbitrary, like physicists studying some "obscure phenomenon" like the photoelectric effect may have seemed to outsiders. But (far, far) behind the scenes, there is a long and winding history of questions, answers and refinements.

Knowing that history illuminates the context and importance of problems like the above; but it makes for a long, taxing and sometimes boring read for the unmotivated, unlike the sexy "quantum blockchain intelligence" blurbs or "grand unification of mathematics" silliness in pure math. So, few popularizations care to trace the historical trail from the basics to the state of the art.