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My father and I were fishing far back in a pasture. Like, miles from the nearest road 'back'. There were a couple of ponds, one above the other, with a stream feeding the lower one, from the spillway of the upper one. He parked the truck at the lower one and fished a while, then walked to the upper one. Between the two ponds ran an abandoned rail line, and it had a beautiful stone single-arch bridge where it crossed the little stream. As we walked up the stream bed my dad looked up and admired the craftsmanship of the bridge. It really was beautiful, and probably about 100 years old. He wondered aloud why we don't build bridges as beautifully now.

I said something about how we were probably among about a couple dozen people who had even seen that bridge in the last 20 years, and noted because that the railroad there was abandoned, it wasn't even being used.

As art, it was useless because it had no audience.

As a bridge, it was useless because no trains were crossing it.

Better to spend less money on something that would not have lasted as long.

Houses are similar, in my opinion.