Im not sure I follow. Are you saying you don't understand why people who stare at letters on a screen all day every day for a living might have an interest in the fonts used on said screen?

We stare at text for hours on end, every day. We want the text to be functional... and pleasant to look at. I change fonts frequently, just to spice up my life - it's a little like changing your desktop background on a regular basis.

A good programming font helps avoid confusion. For example, it should be clear if a character is l, I, or 1 without having to see them next to each other (also o, O and 0 as well as others). A font should also make reading code as pleasant as possible (though of course this is highly subjective).

When you consider that programmers spend most of their time reading code, it's not surprising that many programmers care about the font being used.

Practically, we look at text all day long, so having a font that is easy to read is good ergonomics. A font may be good for code, but might not work as well in a tool like htop or gotop.

Monospaced fonts are also interesting from an artistic perspective that resonates with programmers. Font designers are able to be expressive and original despite — or perhaps because of — the constraints of the problem: all characters must have the same width and the text should be readable for long periods of time, often at small sizes.

Well, we spend almost all of our time reading code. I think it only makes sense we develop strong opinions about the font we do that in. It's an essential part of the interface.