In this case, the whole "hipsters" angle was just a cute hook to make the paper more interesting. In reality, it's a neat model of many different dynamic system and a useful mathematical abstraction in and of itself. Even if we didn't have an immediate application now, it would be useful as math and clearly increase the "sum of human knowledge". It's impossible to predict exactly where this idea will lead in the future, whether interesting applications or more math, so it's worth working on just speculatively.

Of course, in this case, it also has an immediate application in neuroscience, which is useful in a visceral sort of way that's easier to appreciate.