Guitar hero

Oh my god... I don't get it. I've played guitar hero a total of 4 times and I still have no interest in ever playing again. It's not that I am bad at it, I actually scored fairly well for a beginner playing the intermediate levels. The thing I don't get is that the people I know who are good at the game, have played it over and over and it has taken them a long time to progress to the point that they are at. My question is, why bother spending so much time learning how to play a fake instrument, when you could spend the same amount of time learning a real one. You may not sound as good as the guitar hero does, but by the time your fairly decent at the video game I bet you could have mastered the basics of a real guitar. I just don't get this source of interactive media.