Mathematicians generally look for “elegance”, i.e. simple rules that have a lot of explanatory power. If you can simplify a bunch of disparate things into one simple theory, that’s a good thing. See Maxwell’s equations as an example in physics:

The publication of the equations marked the unification of a theory for previously separately described phenomena: magnetism, electricity, light, and associated radiation.

The comic jokes about seeking the opposite, intentionally searching for rules that provide no explanatory power and would literally destroy the universe to compute. Pure mathematicians don’t like it because it lacks elegance, and applied mathematicians don’t like it because it’s impossible to actually use.

ELI5 version is that it’s the mathematical version of one of those useless boxes, intentionally made to be useless: