What accounts for the public fascination with royalty?

Aside from Saudi Arabia, I can’t think of any places where royalty is anything but figureheads. Yet Japan and several European countries hold on to kings and queens and emperors. American newspapers carefully follow British royalty Why do these people continue to exist and why is their activity followed? They don’t do anything. Is there some sort of association between royalty and fairytales? Do we yearn to confer importance on a group of people of no particular distinction?