[watwut]

People to want to maintain basic fitness wont prioritize muscle growth over everything. Even more importantly, they will do sports that are not "the gym" - cycling, soccer, running, basketball, climbing and what not.

Gym culture is heavily biased toward something else. And when you look at advice about training guys are getting and seeking, it is all about muscles growth. Nothing about being faster, healthier, have balanced performance ... no other goal is as discussed as muscle growth.

[viraptor]

Maybe that's regional or specific to some chains, but not universal. About half the people in my gym come in only for cardio machines. The PTs start with - "so what do you want to achieve?". As for sports you listed, soccer and basketball rely on available groups - it's not for everyone; climbing depends on available walls which only exist in larger towns and cities (1.5h to my closest one); running/cycling depends on various conditions, so many people do that... at the gym.

[ZeroGravitas]

I was looking into advice on lifting weights not that long ago and this was very noticeable to me.

The stuff you find online didn't even allow for the possibility that there were other goals even as they discussed the risk of life changing injuries from certain practices.

It was just "will this grow muscle size more and faster" when I was looking for some science backed answers on what was the minimum time/money/risk way to be healthy and active in the long term.

One person who stuck out for going against this was an expert in back jnjuries asking older weightlifters "Do you want to keep setting personal bests or do you want to be able to play on the floor with your grandchildren as you can't do both"