Why does AS host moe contest threads??

I'm not trying to rile up anyone, but I really have to ask this seriously... Why?

I just don't see the point in having a thread, which while having some discussion, mostly consists of spam and chatroom like comments. The forum is essentially acting as a source of advertising for some offsite based contest, which I thought it didn't support, as well as turning a blind eye to a thread in its modding with how loose the conversation in it really is. It really is by no means a bastion of constructive conversation on this forum, and I really cannot understand its purpose on this forum when it mostly consists of people spamming their vote picks over and over again.

Now the most similar threads in nature I can think of are favorite character polls on AS for various subforums, but these threads at least promote more constructive conversation as it allows people to talk about why they found so and so the best character in their respective series, as well as simply the fact that it is actually a poll on the forum and not on some other website...

Is there a reason AS permits such threads to exist? And if so, why does it seem to conflict with so many of the ideals that the forum supposedly stands for in the first place?