I agree with you, no one really has explained the benefits. I just see downsides. Boxing occasionally goes through big dips in PPV buys and popularity with casuals when stars aren't in the ring. I can see the same happening with MMA too.

Yes, "stars" bring in tons of fans. But how many really stick around? Furthermore, we are now in a predicament where we are CONSTANTLY comparing fight cards to the big numbers, and I feel like that's kind of counterproductive to the growth of the sport.

There is a difference between a good card (good matchmaking) and a successful card (large PPV and gate sales). Successful cards are almost always good, but good cards aren't always successful. What people need to realize is that less successful cards are going to happen in this sport regardless. But lesser known fights that end up being great are huge incentives for casuals to delve further into the sport, who doesn't like feeling more knowledgable (about anything) than your friends?

Right now we constantly rate cards on PPVs and money they bring in BEFORE the quality of the fights, and that prevents people from seeing the benefit of experiencing the lesser known fights. It's similar with the psychology in commerce, people are going to immediately assume the most expensive/popular product is superior, and why care about anything less than the best?

In the end, I just feel like the stars are going to be stars regardless of the UFC push in media. Which leads me to want bigger pushes for lesser known fighters to elevate the numbers from the less successful cards up while the popular cards won't lose many PPVs at all because people love the stars regardless.