I get clubbing. You can't really replicate the dance floor and music at home. But a bar?
2) Human interaction: At the very least, there's going to be a bartender, and most of the time at least one other person sitting at the bar. Not interacting with other humans face-to-face often enough leads to madness.
3) Variety: I don't stock every beer, liquor, and cocktail ingredient known to man at home (despite my best efforts).
And frankly, that "less risk of getting in a fight" comment is probably the biggest one. Not because I'm particularly rowdy, but because it's indicative of a larger theme: at home, drinking alone, I know exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to have 2 or 4 pretty good drinks, watch some streaming shows, maybe play some videogames, and go to sleep. A bar has the allure of entropy. Interesting things might happen. I might see a fight, I might talk to someone with an interesting story, I might taste something I've never tasted before. The lack of predictability is a selling point unto itself.
Sometimes you wanna go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You wanna be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name
I've had my fair share of bars and clubs. Never once got remotely close to be involved in a fight, it's not something that even crosses my mind as a potential issue.
I'd rather pre-screen the people online first before I meet them, or meet people at special interest clubs or events. I'm way more likely to meet someone I have something in common with that way than meeting random people at a bar.
Not to mention that at a bar I'm much more likely to meet the kind of people that hang out in bars, which from my experience haven't been the kind of people I like.
That's why it's called a "pub": A public house. It's a place specifically for being loud at night.
If people didn't have neighbours who wanted to sleep, nobody would go to a pub, it would just be house parties all the time. In rural areas it is.
And some people don't have the luxury of living somewhere quiet, though they would much rather do so.
I appreciate that this isn't true for everywhere.
I see plenty of reasons without even going to the fact that it's just about going out.
I get your point if your idea of going to the bar is to have a pint with your wife on Sunday afternoon, which is a valid idea of going to the bar. But it's just not the case for a lot of people, and not the topic of the article.
EDIT: the parent suggested that alcohol and an untrained therapist is cheaper. I posted something that is cheaper and healthier since it wont ruin your liver. Not to mention, chatgpt is actually trained on CBT.