It's amazing seeing grown adults who would scoff at their peers buying lotto tickets and scratchers enthusiastically burn cash on TCG without the slightest sense of hypocrisy.
The secret is "social head canon".
"Head canon" is when you fill in the plot holes to make sense of your favorite narratives.
"Social head canon" is the same but for our understanding of society.
When the algorithm feeds children videos of adults opening TCG packs what they see is grown adults, the people who are appear to, and are supposed to, have it all figured out, losing their shit over cardboard and the child fills in the "why" on their own.
But they are wholly ignorant of "gambler's high" so they concoct elaborate narratives for why the adults "love the cards". That "social head canon" is so sticky because it can be anything, infinitely complex, wholly private, and different for every person.
Once that child grows up they learn about "gambler's high" and so seek the same thing, but now for the intended reasons.
Rinse and repeat across generations.