You are so wildly off base from my lived experience that I have to assume you have no experience with generational poverty.
You are not saving up to improve your life because the savings rate is too small to effectively matter. And all the savings you muster can be wiped out by, well, any extra expense. Car breaks down, medical copay, kid needs clothes due to a growth spurt, bank fees, etc.
If any chance event will break you, it is not entirely illogical to lean on chance to save you.
If you don't see light at the end of the tunnel, or you think that light is an oncoming train, you are not going to "act rationally" for arriving at the end of the tunnel.
Yes. Of all people, Jordan Peterson used to talk about this a lot. He said anybody will break from enough cycles of hard work with no reward, and that's when people do stupid things. The nickel and diming of everything alone is enough to drive a person insane if they don't make enough money to ignore it.