That's because you are using in a JSON API context, where it doesn't make any sense.
HATEOAS (or, as Fielding prefers to call it, the hypermedia constraint) is a necessary component of a truly REST-ful networking system, but unfortunately the language around REST is all jumbled up.
I try to explain why this is here:
https://htmx.org/essays/how-did-rest-come-to-mean-the-opposi...
and I try to explain what HATEOAS really is here:
https://htmx.org/essays/hateoas/
and I try to explain why HATEOAS has been, by and large, a failure outside of true hypermedia clients presenting directly to humans here:
https://intercoolerjs.org/2016/05/08/hatoeas-is-for-humans.h...