We actually have studies on this. Amateur photographers have worse awareness of a scenic environment than people who just look around. And people who just look around have worse awareness than professional photographers and painters. Donald Norman talks about this in one of his books, Emotional Design IIRC. Makes sense.
So in simple terms, "professional photographers and painters have greater environment awareness than everyone else" - isn't that simply intuitive?
I know lots of people will look down their noses at anyone who dares to photograph their food at a restaurant, but as much as I enjoy cooking, I am clueless about how to present it.
For me, taking a photo of the plate in front of me is as much about learning how to make my dishes look appetising as it is about remembering the great restaurant I went to.
I simply like collecting and organising, and I get a kick out of composing a good picture of anything; even cups of coffee. That's enough reason for me to take pictures of random crap!