“Ritual” and “magic” are related, but not identical. You’re correct that many of the participants don’t know the full evolution behind the rituals, and many of the components make no sense to you or I. The rituals that make things Official do somewhat well at the job of seeming important and making it less likely for an average person to think they can get away with cheating, and make it easier for an adjudicator to see whether things appear “standard” and they need only to verify actual details, or whether everything is haphazard and they have to examine process and provenance before even thinking about the details.
That feeling that these irrelevant processes are critical to get right, or un-defined Bad Things will happen, is a benefit of rituals.
“Ritual” and “magic” are related, but not identical. You’re correct that many of the participants don’t know the full evolution behind the rituals, and many of the components make no sense to you or I. The rituals that make things Official do somewhat well at the job of seeming important and making it less likely for an average person to think they can get away with cheating, and make it easier for an adjudicator to see whether things appear “standard” and they need only to verify actual details, or whether everything is haphazard and they have to examine process and provenance before even thinking about the details.
That feeling that these irrelevant processes are critical to get right, or un-defined Bad Things will happen, is a benefit of rituals.