@flutherother I’m just taken aback that someone would frame the question this way. “Remains so relevant”?
Do you also wonder why people still paint and draw, when they could use a camera? Do you question other art forms?
I feel like you must have never experienced appreciation of a good novel, to be writing such questions. Perhaps I’m out of touch with how many people may have never had that experience?
Some professors say that to fully understand the entirety of a single great book would be the equivalent of an entire education.
My opinion, is that good novels have no competition as a form, at what they do. Humans have not invented another way to present an artful and enjoyable exploration of the human condition in the same ways that masterfully written stories do.
There are also various other attractions, even for pulp fiction. Many people enjoy reading stories in text, for various reasons. One of which is that the reader controls the pace of digestion, and a reader can easily glance back. Another is the reader’s ability to use their own mind’s eye and imagination to visualize and flesh out the scenes. Compared to, say, video or even live drama, the reader is entirely free to contemplate whatever they like, without having to keep up with what’s the drama is doing in real time. Not to mention the frequently flawed performances and other negative aspects of films, which a reader’s imagination can fill in as they please. Novels can present the feelings and thinking of characters in different ways than video performances can. So too for exposition and back-story. Books also don’t need multi-million-dollar budgets. Written fiction also includes various devices that are not present in other forms, such as the many possible devices of wording and narrative. Etc. Etc.