Me? As a food, I love it. I use it year-round in every recipe that calls for cinnamon: oatmeal cookies, cinnamon rolls, you name it. Years ago I was baking an apple pie but discovered too late that I didn't have any cinnamon...I used pumpkin pie spice instead, and now I can never go back.
As a cultural phenomenon, I'm....confused, mostly. I mean, it's a tasty and aromatic spice blend, but it's just one of several in my pantry. (Why no love for curry spice or chili powder?) But I'm not gonna hate on someone else's good time: life is short, let folks enjoy stuff.
Pumpkin pie is associated strongly with US Thanksgiving, and to a lesser extent, Christmas.
It's a seasonal marker and association, which reinforces it.
there's plenty of love of curries and chili... but it's not seasonal.
In the case of chili, it's vaguely summerish - beans and peppers store dried indefinitely, and meat can be jerked to keep for upwards of a year.
And yes, I do consider beans in a chili-based sauce chili.
And yes, I do consider meat in a chili-based sauce chili.
And I prefer both together in a chili based sauce, with some onions, garlic, maybe also shredded or finely diced parsnip and/or shredded potato, but no tomatoes...
Yeah, I'm weird. Deal with it.
likewise, curries are not usually seasonal... but the proteins are.
With some exceptions: Jackfruit curry, pumpkin spice curry. Since these two are fruit based... (Yeah, pumpkin's a fruit. So are the rest of the squash. And tomatoes.)
Yeah, my local thai place has a thanksgiving through christmas pumpkin spice curry sauce. Jackfruit is also seasonal, but I don't know the season. I like both, but not more than Neng's green curry. And I can usually tell when she's not in the kitchen. (I like it with extra lemongrass even more!)