Now that question, dearest Janhvi, would stump even the Delphic Oracle.
I think we watch it out of sheer habit - 3 years is long enough to develop an addiction - and also perhaps because at any given point of time, there is at least one character in whose fate one is genuinely interested, though this character can change with the viewer. For example, for me right now it is Onir, whose simple goodness reassures me about human nature.
As for my old favourite Arjun, apart from his intolerable weakness and his general readiness to turn himself into a doormat for Purvi, I found the way in which he was drooling over Pari only
after he found out that she was Purvi's daughter very dismaying and disgusting. What kind of father is this who is demonstrative towards his own daughter - earlier he was looking all the time like a chronic dyspeptic, whereas it was Ovi who was always clinging to Pari like a mother bear - only because she is his ex-flame's child, but does not have a single thought to spare for his other baby that has died? Appalling.
As for the triangles that are apparently going to be inflicted on the PR viewership, they do not bother me, as I watch PR only from recordings, and I fast forward all the Savita-Damodar, Sunny-Teju-Jignesh, the Khandesias, Vinod-Manju and other such scenes. I do not think I will be missing any earth-shaking revelation because of this, and even if I do, I am sure I can survive it.
Incidentally, I loved your boy wonder Soham in his showdown with Arjun, in which he comes out tops. His body language as Arjun, defeated, drives off, was splendid.
This said, I was grateful for your post, which is characteristically sensible and to the point, and what was the best, a most refreshing change from the usual frantic laments and homicidal wish lists which festoon this forum all too often. I too felt exactly the same as Purvi and Onir shut the window, metaphorically and literally, in Arjun's face. But then both of us think alike a lot of the time. and this time, as Monica put it, the symbolism was so in one's face. Still, no one else thought of highlighting it. Thanks.
Shyamala