/lit/ - Literature

Why do people care about debates over written discussions?
Often times you see people calling writers/thinkers/etc to debate publicly as if this is somehow better than comparing their written work.
Writing a book or a thesis or even a paper often takes weeks, months, years and allows you to carefully polish every argument and make sure you are not forgetting anything out of some circumstance.
A debate lasts at most a couple hours, and proves absolutely fucking nothing about the points being discussed. At most it shows one side is a better showman. A debate is just a performance, not unlike a theater play or a concert.

I'm convinced only absolute idiots even listen to debates instead of reading books by the parties involved. Can someone change my mind?