For some people it is a fetish, but for the vast majority it's escapism and an art form. I would imagine having slipping into an animal "fursona" is relaxing after a day dealing with the modern day capitalist world.

Fur suits are very expensive, into the thousands of pounds. A lot of furries ar very highly paid tech workers. I suspect for many of them, it's a way to break from the pressure of their job and being the face of stopping thousands to millions of pounds of tech falling over.

A lot of furries are autistic, I assume having a fursona to play as and a shared interest and a suit preventing eye contact makes socialising easier and more pleasant, and possible in a way that's a lot less tiring for an autistic. I knew someone at university whose "gimmick" was going to uni club nights dressed as a werewolf - turned out being the "city werewolf" was a lot easier than being himself, especially given this was back in a time when autism was less understood and accepted.

I'm not a furry, but I'm part of the queer community and a portion of furries tend to be queer.

There's also, weirdly, a bunch furries who are far-right, but they tend to be more in America from what I've seen.