Because clearly that never happens, or you wouldn't be kvetching about it so much, to the point where you needed to start a new thread to see how common your plight is.
/snip
Because, see, my table does move forward. Our characters and our understanding of the world continues to change and grow and we tell stories about them. We've done stuff. Sure, maybe didn't get any closer to killing the BBEG this session, or solving the puzzle that will save the day, but the session was anything but a waste.
Sorry, I may be confusing you with the fifteen other people who keep telling me to change how I want the game to go. See, from my perspective, this is what I see:
Me: The game would be improved if it was run at a faster pace since many games end before a satisfactory conclusion.
Response 1 - No, you're wrong. The journey is the reward and you should just be happy with what you got.
Response 2 - No, you're wrong. You just want to go from combat to combat, and not do any role play.
Response 3 - No, you're wrong. Nothing that ever happens in an RPG is ever a waste of time.
Response 4 - No, you're wrong. Gaming is about "emergent" stories. Totally different from authored stories.
Personally, I really love #4 because, well, it ignores the fact that emergent or not, without a climax, you don't actually have a story. You have a setting. You have characters, but, you don't have a story.
At no point does anyone say, "Hey, Y'know what? Maybe if we tightened the campaign up a bit, stripped out those sessions where we "didn't get any closer to ... saving the day", we might, just maybe, actually have a complete campaign. But, no. Instead, I have everyone tripping over themselves to tell me how wrong I am for wanting DM's to maybe skip a few things, just so we DO get closer to saving the day. Because, for me, a session where we didn't get closer? That's a total waste of time because it means we're one more step closer to the campaign failing.
I mean, FFS, our Ravenloft campaign ended in the middle of a freaking combat. The DM just vanished into the ether and never came back. Real life stepped on him hard. I get that. But, poof. Campaign gone. No warning. No word. Just showed up for the game next week and... no DM. Our recent Avernus campaign ended while crossing a bridge. We'd resolved nothing. I'm not talking about campaigns trailing off because the DM wants to move on to something else, so, we've kinda sorta come to a conclusion (although that's common enough too). I'm talking about how the campagn ends three sentences after the Ring Wraiths stab Frodo.
Every time.