There are a number of arguments to be made here, among them the confusion – in so much of Earth culture – of exchange-value (money) with actual value – consider all the things you do every day that there’s no “sound economic reason” for doing – and the different ways of looking at things when you aren’t regulated into considering only next quarter’s share price, and have the lifespan to undertake truly long-term projects knowing you’ll still be around for the returns.
But mostly…
“Yeah, we encountered Practicality, once. We didn’t like it much. So we told it to bugger off, and went back to our torrid affair with Awesomeness.”
…what price can you put on greatness?
Consider their values, in the posts linked above. The only people who whine about the lack of a reason to do something awesome are Obstructive Naysayers, and the local culture loathes Obstructive Naysayers.