William W. Plummer wrote:
Yes! And, although you might invent reasons to fly airplanes (commute,
work, etc), none of these stand up to analysis. There is only one reason
to fly balloons -- it's just plain fun. But expensive, much more than
airplanes.

And there's always the pesky problem of filing flight plans.
Destination....Downwind.

Plus I had the opportunity to witness one of those things landing near
my house once. They got pulled through two sets of trees, plonked on
the ground and fell over, after which the basket got dragged for a
further 30 or 40 ft. All part of the magic I guess.