The closest I came to buying a reliced guitar was the Cobain Jaguar. Pretty sweet looking, but I didn't like the corroded metal.

Well a guitar is something you wear, like a pair of jeans.
Many of us would not go out in crisp, unfaded, dark blue jeans with bright orange stitching. Similarly, a musician may not want to look like he just got his instrument for Christmas.
Personally, I like a bit of patina on most things. To each his own. I've seen what some kids do to their jeans though, so .....

Goodonyaz ...Mark.

To the OP, you're new here, so welcome aboard. Also, because you're new here you probably aren't aware that there are threads that go on ad nauseam about this very topic. There are many who are passionate on both sides of the coin, and, at least to me, each side has reasonable arguments pro or con.

Like many of those who are staunchly against the idea of unnaturally relic'ing their beloved guitars, I keep all of my material possessions in as good a shape as I possibly can. I try to have these items look as new as the day I bought them for as long as possible. Therefore, it's hard for me to fathom purchasing a relatively expensive item that's had its finish intentionally damaged/relic'd.

OTOH, I've played several relic'd Strats and absolutely love the feel (and sound) of the ones I've demo'd. At 46 years old, and having owned my '08 MIA Standard for only 4 years, I likely can't play it enough to wear the finish naturally over the next (God-willing) few decades of my life, especially given that I don't have time to play guitar several hours every day. By "wear" I don't necessarily mean nicks/chunks/etc. missing from the body of the guitar, nor am I talking about screws and other metal parts that are rusty. THIS I'm not a fan of. I'm more concerned with wearing the neck naturally so that it plays like some of the relics I've demo'd, which takes more playing time than I can likely devote to it due to the thicker undercoat. This relic'd (worn) neck, front and back, IS what I am a fan of.

So I guess my opinion is that I absolutely love some portion of the relic'ing that Fender offers, while I'm not as enthused about the rusting/nicking/chipping part. Nothing like straddling the fence, huh. At the end of the day, however, I've got no problem with the people who love relic'd Strats, and I've got no real beef with those who dislike them. But I'm glad Fender offers the relic option. My guess is that if Fender wasn't selling very many of their relic'd line of guitars, they wouldn't continue to offer it. Therefore, there must be a nice market for it.

To each his own. Love what you play and play what you love. And again, welcome.

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2008 MIA Standard Strat 3-tone Sunburst
2007 Taylor 310 Acoustic
Fender Blues Junior NOS Amp
Digitech Bad Monkey OD pedal