Yup, and as Al-Khwarizmi says in a sibling comment, we are entertained through the journey.
Whether it diminishes your entertainment, once you get to the end of the story, to realise almost everything was pointless
- in the fictional universe you just partook - well that's a question for you.
For me, it does not. But I also really enjoyed Joseph Heller's second novel.
A well-made film can also get away with one or two plot points that it doesn't bear to think too deeply about so long as the film as a whole is good.
The letters of transit signed by General De Gaulle[1] in Casablanca is a case in point. As someone once wrote, that would have been the equivalent of US forces being forced to accept letters of transit signed by Osama bin Laden.
[1]Maybe Peter Lorre actually says another name which would make more sense but De Gaulle is the general assumption.
Whether it diminishes your entertainment, once you get to the end of the story, to realise almost everything was pointless - in the fictional universe you just partook - well that's a question for you.
For me, it does not. But I also really enjoyed Joseph Heller's second novel.