>>109259277Some do, some do it for the girls, for some it's a guilty pleasure. It's multiple reasons, none exclusive from one another.
One of the biggest reasons most do it however, if not the biggest reason and the answer you're looking for, is because of something that's hard to explain as it's easy to misunderstand it as self-inserting. There's a bit of relatability, a bit of self-inserting, while at the same time rooting for the character just because it is that character and not because of the self-insert.
They see and experience the world through that character, that are multiple psychological factors at play. It's not a satisfying answer, I know, but like I said it's difficult to explain. At least for me.
One a side note if you're wondering why you see many people here that are into the sort of stuff, regardless of what newfags think this site was built based off a japanese imageboard and a vast majority of people that populated it for years were ones whose hobbies were mostly video games and anime, the latter of which has a ton of male MC harem.
