But reading papers is fun and cool. You get to learn new things. If you read recent papers, you learn things that aren't just new to you but new to the entire world; you can literally learn cutting-edge things that were discovered recently. And if you read older papers, you can better understand why the world is the way it is right now.

Putting TC aside (don't most programmers make plenty anyways?), isn't it just cool to learn new and cutting-edge things? Personally, I think so. Curiosity is central to what it means to be a hacker.