Why do people want to climb Mt Everest?

If someone can answer that question in a way that makes me actually understand then I will be grateful.
I have of course seen the photograph of the traffic jam going towards the summit. It genuinely puzzles me.
I can, sort of, understand Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing doing it. I still think it was a crazy sort of thing to do but, back then, it was  perhaps a little different. It had not been done before that anyone knew of and therefore, humans being humans, it was one of those things that they felt needed to be done.
Now so many people have done it that, while it may be a personal achievement of a sort, it really isn't so special any more. 
    "You've climbed Mt Everest?" I can hear myself asking and trying to sound interested.
I just can't understand why people want to go and do something which is so dangerous and which has, as far as I can see, no value to humanity. It is also very cold and filled with discomfort.
But then, as a cat, I fail to understand any desire for non-essential human activities that lead to such discomfort. Oh I think I understand the adrenalin flow of the footy or cricket game but even they have their dangers. 
I have to go out this morning - and the weather is foul. It is windy and raining and, at present, about 10'C. It could be worse, much worse but it doesn't mean I am going to enjoy going out. 
Do people actually enjoy getting bruised and battered while getting colder and colder and finding it more and more difficult to breathe? I am told it is possible to climb to the summit without oxygen but it is also very difficult.  Even much lower than that people have difficulty in breathing. When my brother went to the base he was appalled by the litter of throwaway oxygen containers.. 
Nepal is a poor country and I doubt they make much out of those who climb Mt Everest. Yes, it brings in the tourists but how much do the local people see of that money? Very little.
Nepal is also a country rich in history and culture and tradition. I think it would be better to go and experience that in a sensitive way than climb a mountain.