Parking Lot Camping

So we visited family members last night that were at Pismo Beach 'camping'. This involved sitting on folding furniture in a paved parking spot big enough for one car, next to 500 other parking spots filled with 2000 other 'campers'. This isn't camping, it's sitting around in a parking lot eating undercooked food and swatting bugs.

What's the point of this? It's not quiet, it's not pretty, it's just like setting up a tent in a mall garage except that you're nowhere near an Orange Julius.