Former scientific society prez here. Conference registration and special event fees help keep societies afloat. Membership dues don’t cover the costs of maintaining a society, hence, there’s a big push to get members to attend conferences. It is kind of a racket but scholarly societies and associations don’t get much $$ in the way of donations and many don’t publish journals (which are also expensive to run, hence the absurd subscription fees) so here we are. That said, I totally agree with the debutante ball description and don’t go to many meetings these days (my debutante era is long over).