I used to be critical of this but I've come around because:

1. Creating memes takes ideas/time.
2. My ideas are wacky and untested.

So I might spend 20-60 minutes making something only for people to hate it. (This happened a lot more often in the beginning because I was bad and my ideas took a lot of photo editing.) I still make memes when I think the idea is worth it. Of course, I could just pander to what I think people want to hear, but I make memes for more organic reasons than that.