At least for school, unlike most other stuff, it actually greatly impacts the human life itself. It’s over ten years of hard work and unpaid labour for the chance of getting money back (employment).
Studying leads to a higher chance of good exam results by lowering retrieval failure, which leads to a higher chance of university acceptance(or a higher quality one) due to good grades.
With a university degree (with potentially good grades as a bonus), it increases the chance of getting a job (most high-salary jobs are locked behind at least a university degree).
With a job, a person can earn money and thus contribute to their own survival. However, I never implied it's easy; there's a lot of stress. Rather, this is the societal standard of how someone should go through their life, but there really isn't any other safe alternative, so people end up in this. See: Metalearning