I'm sure more of those companies were aware that it's a shitty idea than you're giving credit for. That doesn't matter though, what matters is whether they can convince other people to pay for it before everyone else figures that out. Most marketing is about getting people to buy shit that they wouldn't buy otherwise, this is no different.

They saw what happened to cryptocurrency and they were not willing to pass on the next new thing called "crypto" using a similar technology. With bitcoin producing results many tens of thousands of percent in increased value it was something they were all willing to commit to.

Had cryptocurrency not happened the NFT concept simply wouldn't have drawn the interest it did.

I sometimes think that FOMO in the tech world is a real fear that keeps these tech execs up at night. Even if it was obvious dumb bullshit I think a lot of these guys have seen so many tech empires rise and fall so rapidly to the point they're barely even remembered and I think there's a fear that they could be the next short sighted dummy who writes off the new technology as a fad and completely misses out on the next game changer.

They saw the opportunity to make a quick buck and went for it.