I will never understand why people kill fruits in AV

[Felis]

Many get it for leveling roulette and want tomes not experience. if you're interested in experience just ask the group.

People, who are not lv 50, don't get tomes.
And if you see that someone is not lv 50, don't wait until he ask. He will exp

Then couldn't the challenge be in killing the fruit before they spawn rather then in waiting for them to spawn?

No, that would be not challenging, because you kill the seeds with 2-3 hits. Maybe if the devs increase their def, so that 15-20 hits are needed.