Every day is filled with culturally-mandated scripts, though. You don’t belch in front of a date (unless you’re already super close). You say “please” and “thank you” to people. You make eye contact and nod occasionally when someone speaks to you. It’s impossible not to have norms like this (and if it weren’t these norms, it would be others). They might not make a lot of sense all the time, but that’s not their purpose.
But those scripts are at least brief. Chit chat is typically about things that are supposed to be "shared" interests by everyone like whatever TV shows are currently considered culturally relevant, or the local sportsball results. When you legitimately do not care about any of those things it gets awkward in a hurry. Hell, I'm only barely aware of the current weather conditions, let alone the forecast, which is pretty much as default as topics get for this.
I guess my problem is that it is a ritual meant to simulate a conversation, yet unlike a conversation no meaningful information is meant to be exchanged.
