Dude, watch the attract mode on Keith Courage. It literally looks like the person had never played the game before.
Well, why bother with proper gameplay if the game is going to be included with every TG-16 for free?
Well, in my opinion the attract mode should give you an idea of what it's like to play the game, and maybe even teach you a tip or two.
Some attract modes reveal tips, but I always thought that poor AI in an attract mode was intentional, since it didn't want to spoil too much of the game.
I am a very anti-spoilers person, that's why I liked when attract modes did not show all the stages in a game. Some games only show the first few levels. Also, that's why I liked attract modes that only briefly showed a stage...you get a glimpse, but it really is just a tease.
If you think about it, the origin of the attract mode is to lure quarters (uhh, I mean "players") to specific games at an arcade.
Anyway, there's no point to attract modes in a console game, but I love that they exist. Well...I suppose attract mode could have been used by retail stores to promote sales of particular games. That makes sense.