No, dictionary adds value for most users, billions of people. When you come across a word you don't know the meaning of, you can look it up. Cookbook metadata

No, dictionary adds value for most users, billions of people. When you come across a word you don't know the meaning of, you can look it up. Cookbook metadata DB provides value to a vanishingly small % of the people - primarily academic researchers. I am not saying that this whole enterprise is useless, I am saying that your analogy doesn't hold up.