For me it is in part what you said. Radio birdwatching is actually pretty fun just bumping around the spectrum to see what you can find. There is the communication aspect of course. There is a bit of an emergency preparation aspect to it too. You can also do things like listen to satellites and get images from them or use the ISS as a repeater to get contacts from much further away than usual. It is a very broad hobby to get into. I am the youngest operator by probably 30 years in my area which is an interesting experience but it is cool to be able to operate old analog technology since I also grew up in the internet age (mostly). The entry price point into the hobby is relatively low now. I spent maybe 50 USD when I first started, unfortunately as you get more skills and interest the cost for equipment to do things you wanna do definitely goes up.