I mean literally 99% of the time you don't see 0.01% of what goes on on Twitter anyway, much less put any effort into it, given your apparent distaste for it.
So yes, chances are people really do enjoy twitter and you're just virtue signaling your elitism here. If everyone you're following is "just trying to be clever," then consider following other people.
I think this is super important on any social website that has reached certain level of popularity (Twitter, Quora, FB). Without curation, there is just too much content to wade through between reaching the interesting ones.
Personally, I use Twitter to follow people from CS and tech, and it benefits me a lot. Many times, I get news on Twitter faster than my feed reader, for instance.
I get to see the news in little bubbles I’m interested in, and some jokes between those people.