Random Literary Question(s) of the Day

Why do you think so many authors nowadays think it necessary to write about the dreams their characters have?  You know, besides the fact that it's a good foreshadowing tool. Is this some sort of necessary item one must include for character development nowadays?  Does it strike you as somewhat lazy, like it does me? Dreams are passive.  They happen to you; you don't have to make them happen.  As an author, that means there isn't any action required, nothing you actually have to make your characters endure, but rather you get all the added benefits of character depth while simply relating your character's subconscious wanderings.  Again, it seems lazy.

And, as a literary tool, it's getting kind of old, ya dig? Because, it seems to me, more and more authors are resorting to this trick.

I'm a practical chick.  I have a hard time understanding why people think dreams are so fascinating. A friend once told me that he would never write about two things: his children or his dreams---because these two things were always more interesting to you than they were to other people.  While I would disagree with him about the former, I wholeheartedly agree with him about the latter---just because I know I wouldn't want to subject anyone to my dreams. They're certainly not fascinating.  If they were, I might remember them, but as it is, I generally don't, unless they're repeated as much as a Law and Order episode on cable, so I can finally get the gist of the storyline. Neither do I think my subconscious is trying to tip me off as to what my "issues" really are through my dreams.   Dreams are just dreams---but they have value nonetheless.  Be they sweet or nightmarish, they belong to that world on the other side of consciousness; they belong to the world of otherness, to the world where things that aren't so readily explained---and that, in my estimation, is where they should stay. To dissect them, whether the purpose is to search for psychological clues for personal betterment, or, if you're an author, to use them to further develop your character, seems to cheapen them in my estimation. 

Am I off the map with this, my devoted Cake Eater readers? Or are dreams really that fascinating?