Why does research on the busy beaver function get funded? I saw this video about the busy beaver function and looked at the applications section of the Wikipedia article about the busy beaver function.

I concluded that there is zero practical or even theoretical value in searching these numbers S(n) : n > 5. Now in the video the person says, that people are using supercomputers to calculate S(5). Now I assume using supercomputers is expensive and so somebody is obviously funding this research.

Am I too narrow minded to see the value of funding such research and there is actual value to it or what other reasons are there to fund such endeavors? I assume most academic research is funded by taxes and so it should bring some value to society. While there might be some intellectual value in having such knowledge, does the cost justify it?

PS: Probably this question is too broad/opinion based, but I didn't know on what SE site it would fit best or how to improve it to make it less opinion based, feel free to edit.

EDIT: The economic question is partially solved, by supercomputers being much cheaper than I thought so that argument falls flat. Still could somebody give me a hint on what the value of such research is?
Extremely likely, this concrete example is useless. So is any other concrete example. However, there are many of these examples, and we do not know which handful of them will be useful.

Some ancient people wasted time on research in number theory, some of which ended up being practically useful. Some studied motion of stars in detail far exceeding calendaring and navigational needs. This also proved useful. 

Many, many studies also led to dead-ends. At the time, one could not tell which of them would.