It also seems like a waste of money that presumably finds it way onto ticket prices.
I sort of assumed that Air NZ started this trend because of all the hype surrounding the first ones. There's an article covering the history of these here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/374709/feature-a-bri... (they claim the first was in 2009, so a couple of years after the earliest one mentioned in tfa).
I find them downright annoying now. The cringe factor makes them uncomfortable to watch which is not what you want from a safety video. It feels as though they jumped the shark.