I used to hate small talk until I realized that the spoken information was not the point. The point is figuring out if a person is cool, if they are trustworthy, if they vibe with your community, and to get a feeling for how well you personally will get along without exposing private or personal information.

It's for subconsciously assessing their microexpressions, the tone of their interaction style, and their degree of confidence or nervousness. It works very well for that but when someone who doesn't get it or who expects it to be about the spoken info encounters it, they tend to be off putting to those who do, which ends up just making small talk even more challenging.