A combination of Draconomicon and the Dune books made dragons make sense for me. Confused a touch? Lemme explain.
First, let's redefine a few things. Let's suggest that both food and all products of civilization are, in this terminology, "energy"; wealth (coins, art, trade goods, etc), magical power, the ability to move armies and seize territory, etc. So the constant struggle of Prime Material life produces 'energy'. This energy accumulates, slowly but surely, in a never-ending escalation; inflation, larger and larger armies, better and better weapons, more powerful spells. In our own history, deleting magic from the argument, this has taken us from throwing rocks at our own shadows to exploring the vast gulf between the stars (admittedly, in a very narrow line through it...).
Now, enter the dragon. Spellcasters almost without peer. At the height of their power, there is very little on the Prime Material that could match them in any regard. They covet wealth almost to the point of insanity, their unending arrogance means they lead or they're not interested, and when they're about to die, they devour their hoards and leave nothing to their descendants.
They're the ultimate energy consumers of a planet, and likely why civilizations have been around for 10,000 years (say, FR's elves) without significant advancement. They're like conduits that dump all that accumulated energy off-world.
But hey, I might simply be talking out the wrong orifice. Works for me, though.
/hijack
p.s. I agree with you on beholders. What the hell were they smoking that night? Nevertheless, it wouldn't be D&D without them...despite the fact I'll bet about 10% of DM's ever actually USE them. YMMV.
