> it's glorified cock fighting for kids

I never "got" Pokemon.

The trainer is all lovey-dovey over their pets... NOW fight! One. At. A. Time.

I kept wanting police to roll in with oversized nets and tranquilizer guns to break it all up.

Except very few of the cards that are so expensive are even used in the card game for real battles. And the shiny / fancy ones have plain counterparts that would do the same thing in a battle.

The value is purely artistic. Which is its own value, to be fair. But people aren't buying these expensive cards to use them in the game. They just want them for the art (or simply the rarity)