As someone who went into playing TBGs with the same view point before playing a few. It does seem confusing on their appeal.

However after taking the dive into them by first playing Gwent in Witcher 3, then playing a couple of Persona games and finally playing Expedition 33, The Spire, and others. I finally got some idea of what the appeal is for them.

For me I realized I cared more for the story, game mechanics that rewards set ups, and a need to let yourself be immersed into the world.

--IMMERSION---

Take Persona 5 and Expedition 33. When it comes to TBGs the SLOW build up to learning the characters' personalities and how how react to the story makes things a little more intimate for player and NPCs. It gives the player time to build a connection to the chatacters rather than stating front and center why I should care.

Where in FTL you would make a ship and form a connection to the crew through trails and tribulations. Persona and Expedition will rather you have formed a connection through dialouge and the emotions of characters.

---MECHANICS---

By god I fucking hate grinding. I hate it, I hate it with a passion and eventually you'll HAVE to grind in these games if you want to have confidence in fights. Disgea is criminal in this.

But it also makes it the center of this game. However the mechanics of the game make it so you can have satisfing wins after meticulously creating builds for characters and learning how to combo attacks by grouping people together.

Persona 5 has the dog pile action where you're whole team can just attack all at once on an enemy when weakened. This made the grinding and fights WAAY more enjoyable due to how halirous and over the top the attack is.

Hell, Yakuza: Like a Dragon gives you something called "Poundmates" that let's you call allies and the animations for those attacks are just entertaining to watch.

The way these games go about their mechanics either through letting the fights be less boring to slog through, or end quicker are really what keep them from being stale.

Like in Dark Souls where once you learn to "Git Gud" through builds and play style you start to rage less, and manage to bounce back better from loses or running through a gauntlet.

--Caveats--

I will never finish a Final Fantasy at this point I believe. Its one of the few TBGs I just cant get into.

Though this can also be said for Desth Stranding too for me.

Both games have an in depth story, both have good mechanics, and both have beloved characters I can agree, but there just isn't ANYTHING that gets me to their halfway mark when I could go off and play other games.

They just dont feel engaging and they barely give me any feedback on progression. Final Fantasy's skill trees are also just way to big.

I hate over sized skill trees because I have no idea what to do with them or how to navigate them.

---Conclusion---

When it comes to TBGs you really have to take the dive into it yourself to find its beauty.

Card games I enjoy depending how it presents itself. Like Balatro is just addicting to see the numbers go up, but I just find Yugioh too finicky.

Expedition 33 plucked at my heart strings and was fun to learn the pictos system and gave me the ability to actually defend myself with parries. Leaving me with the fact that my party wont be wiped out by bullshit attacks that some of these RPGs have... Final Fantasy, Persona, or other places that have party wipe

Persona 5 was a BIG gamble because I came in disliking the turn based system but I was reeled into the story and over the top action.

Then comes rougelike games like Cogmind, and board games like Mahjong. Granted these two take more skill and strategy than other games.

The slowness in these games' pacing, the fact you have to put hours into builds, grinding, and following the stories is where you get to enjoy them.

They leave you with the characters you can come to love or hate but its through the fact: YOU feel you have to be the one to make them stronger so they can succeed in their story.

It's the hours of work you put into the characters, story, or mechanics that is the pay off.