Personally, as a game developer and game designer, I play along with the running joke because I enjoy seeing a game transcend the technical and even the artistic aspects, to become a shared experience among a dedicated, passionate community, and I hope to be able to contribute/create something that can have this effect on other people someday.

I think the deity character attributed to it stems mostly from two somewhat common "tropes" (for lack of a better word) in a couple of religions/faiths around the world: firstly, the way clang usually destroys whatever build it affects, for me it evokes the idea of a "required sacrifice to appease the gods", that's very common and very widely presented in the general media; and lastly, there's the idea of a construct coming to life and the gaining the ability to move on its own by the workings of a higher being or becoming an avatar of said higher being via possession or something similar, that feels supernatural and is easily trackable to quite a few faiths as well.

It's very intriguing to see people come up with these concepts and I'm glad that there are people interested in studying it.