I think of it like a rite of passage nowadays. I remember how badly it would affect me when I started out and I can see how hard it hits juniors and mid-levei developers nowadays, it's one of the biggest threats to morale in a team.
It sucks because we watched this whole train wreck play out in slow motion.
We told our managers from the beginning it was a waste of time and that we should focus on the more important project that will depreciate this one anyway.
I built the tool they wanted, within the constraints of our corporate network configuration, and it worked really well. But it required the customer to change one thing about their workflow, which would require certification.
So they slowly scoped it back and back until it does basically nothing.
But even though the app does nothing and has no users, I still had to generate all the documents and artifacts and recovery plans etc. I wish sometimes that I would have gotten my degree in civil engineering or something more real.