I'm a bit mystified as to why this is an issue for you, Joelsnan. I drink because I enjoy a drink. I'll have a bottle of wine over the course of a week and maybe a couple of G & Ts or beers, or amaretti, as the fancy takes me. I might as well start a thread asking why people eat cake, or chips. Is that benefitting them, their families or society in general? I'd assume they just like them. Trends will of course come and trends will go, in drinks as in everything else - that's nothing new. Cherry B and brandy and Babycham were quite the thing when I first started gadding around town. And I even remember a brief period of popularity for (yuck) barley wine.
I think you might be on to something with the milk stout and hot poker, though - I could see the hipsters going for that.
Lack of public toilets in towns.