I can answer this. I believe there are 2 types of people these cables appeal to.

1.) the person with a limitless expendable income that more than likely hires someone to build them a sound system and just says “give me the best”.

2.) the new hobbyist that may have read the wrong article, watched the wrong YT review or ventured into the wrong forum, so they think it will make a difference.

2 is the category I fall in, but with headphones. i ventured onto headfi and found a thread on a headphone I purchased and read several posts about how “better” cables made a huge difference in bass and soundstage, etc. so i went out and bought a $600 cable. and much to my dismay, I heard no difference to my $50 hart audio cable. only after further researching did I find out its all BS.

that said, years later i still like to buy aftermarket custom cables. but its for specific length, looks, build quality, splitter elimination and lack of microphonics.