What is the attraction of mimed music videos?

[singlecoil]

I know it's been going on for decades, and I can well understand the attraction from the artists' point of view, but I've never understood why people wouldn't much prefer to see and hear the person/band having a go at it live. Or, failing that, if the viewers need something to look at while they are listening to the recorded song, maybe just some footage of the artists doing stuff, rather than pretending to sing and play when it's clear that they are, indeed, just pretending.

[Supernova190188]

I think if a lot of singers were doing live videos then it wouldn't sound anywhere near as good as the recorded version , as a huge number of singers just can't seem to sound as good as their studio version where they've spent hours / days working on the same track. However for SOME artists this way would be better as they are far superior and a lot more entertaining than their recorded versions of songs.