Why do long time players play the game so differently?

[SeiyaSoiya]

parsing doesn't even matter anymore.
As someone who took a 5 year break.
I'm done running in the wheel.

I'm curious as to why you consider parsing a chore and a hamster wheel, isn't parsing something you should do for your own self improvement and on your own volition?
Not necessarily talking about you in particular, I see this sentiment to be all too common: parsing is an obligation and something you MUST do to prove to some strangers that you are good at the gamr, even though there has been no recorded ingame instance of people judging you on your parses.