Why do some fields care so much more about citation styles? On this website, there are 120 questions tagged citation-style, and probably many more without the tag (a search for APA returns 244 results).

I work in applied mathematics, and among my colleagues the general approach to citation styles varies between "it doesn't matter as long as it's consistent" and "I use Bibtex and that's it; frankly I don't even know how this style is called".

Why is citation style considered important in other fields and receives so much interest? What is it that I am missing?
The purpose of a citation style is to provide the reader with references in a standard and legible way. Using a certain style within a research field makes reading and skimming through citations within the field's publications more efficient.

Uniform citation style within a unit of certain field makes the unit's publications look uniform and adds to the quality of the publication, just as good grammar and otherwise good appearance does.

Arguably, a big fuss is when students are learning the correct ways of citation.