Seems useful to me. If I’m selling my house I don’t want to spend a bunch of my own time setting up all the showings and being there for each one. And if I have to trust someone else to do it, they should be licensed and trackable in case something goes wrong.
It does seem like a job that attracts lazy people though, and it also seems like there are way too many agents in general.
For real. My 401k went from 40k to 85k in the same time period as OP.