How fun are tournaments?

I’m casual and slightly below average in terms of how good I am. I keep seeing competitive content where people seem to be having loads of fun despite circumstances but it just seems like pure distilled suffering to me. Time limits on games sound horrible, the lists people bring make me think they hate fun, and on top of that forgone conclusions where you’re guaranteed to lose and are just waiting for it to be over with suckkkkkk. Am I missing something here because no matter how cool my opponent is this just seems like bs lol.