[aerohead]

It's just a means for simplifying the mathematics of celestial mechanics/ astrodynamics.
Anyone crunching numbers is happy to have it.
Go to death Valley and expect it to increase.
Go to the top of Pikes Peak and don't be surprised to see it fall.
It's the hated inverse-square law.
It's why we know that planetary alignments/ conjunctions are a nothing burger when it comes to earthquakes.