There are a lot of "digestif" [0] alcoholic drinks experientially very similar to Jaegermeister, it's kind of a thing to be medicinal.

The American pracice of drinking Jaegermeister to excess I get the impression is done because it tastes so bad, like it's fun because it's so gross and we're sharing this exceptional though still mild form of suffering while getting wasted. Misery loves company as they say.

Social drinking to excess in general has always struck me as a form of shared suffering, Jaeger is just on the extreme end of emphasizing it. Very few alcoholic beverages actually taste genuinely good IMHO, unless it's a cocktail full of flavored syrup like a liquid Jolly Rancher.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap%C3%A9ritif_and_digestif