For those without a direct connection to China: what’s the appeal of learning Chinese?

First, not a troll post, genuine question. Forgive my English. I'm interested in what I'll learn from you!

I've been studying language learning methods on YouTube, and there are many people who are successful Japanese language learners. Often, so many of them say "I tried learning mandarin but I failed/ I gave up/ I got lazy...etc. many of them also don't seem to have a direct connection to China but a strong interest in Chinese language.

A language like Japanese or English has such an apparent appeal: lots of books, art, history, cartoons, video games, and so on. Chinese, I feel, doesn't have an appeal that is so readily obvious but many are so interested.

I learn because I have a direct connection, but if you are not tangibly connected to China/ a Mandarin speaking country , what is motivating you?

Thank you in advance for your responses. I'm genuinely looking forward to learn about it :)

**EDIT: Wow! So many responses! And I learned a lot from so many of you! I did want to say I didn't express myself well on one point: I didn't want to imply that China didn't have appealing culture (or that I found Japanese or English speaking culture more appealing in comparison).

Despite that you were all very kind with your responses! Thank you so much! I hope I didn't miss reading any of them!