Can someone please let me know why Matrix items exist? So many reasons to dislike them... for example, why can I not drop an item from a matrix??

simplicity for ecommerce I believe would be a major reason

Better customer experience in ecommerce

@mightyd3 The handling of apparel goods is a great reason why matrix items exist. You can't just order a Gildan 200 (G200) t-shirt, you also need to specify size and color. By creating a matrix construct where the style# is the matrix parent, you then can have all of the color & size options as sub-matrix items.

@Dino I get that, but I can also build that out with regular inventory items using parent/child. Then I can push that to Shopify or Magento as a virtual variation. I just still do not see the need for matrix items as it stands today. They are too rigid in a sense.

I'm not saying that's not an option - but the idea behind matrix items is they already take care of the configuration of what options can show up on a page when selling it in an online store - it's more sustainable for users to maintain options/lists that way than to have to intervene in some other fashion