As with pretty much any staple food. It's used as a filler. The reason you might not understand is that it can be expensive to eat only meat, veggies, etc. A cheap staple like rice, noodles, or bread is a good way not to die of starvation or at the least keep some money in your pocket.
If a staple food isn't part of your daily diet, that speaks a bit of privilege on your economic position.
Also I enjoy rice. It's neutral tasting but with a tiny bit of seasoning it's good.
I didn't grow up in a city, but currently live in one. I see teens take public transit to the mall and such. Wish I could have done that instead of relying on parents to drive me everywhere.
Any Paradox game. Oxygen Not Included. Factorio. Civilization. Rimworld. Dwarf Fortress. The list goes on.
For me I think it's about having non-stop and parallel mini problems/puzzles/goals. By the time one task is finished. There's two more to take its place.
I'm also in the desktop camp. But I just purchased a Framework 16. The upgradable dGPU (assuming they release new ones) might make laptops more viable for gaming.
Wind? And binary cycle geothermal plants but not sure how common they are.