Could someone with more familiarity in this area explain, what do the 'perpetrators' (for lack of better word) gain out of generating and publishing nonsensical (farkaktical?) papers?
It's about juicing the publication metrics by which academics are evaluated these days, especially in developing countries with less mature research cultures and heavy publish-or-perish pressures. It's especially effective if you have co-conspirators who will cite your nonsense papers. So long as you publish and get cited, the metrics don't care about the content of your papers.
The measurement requirements come from politicians and funding agencies, and "what you measure is what you'll get" is a truism in organizational behavior.
> Could someone with more familiarity in this area explain, what do the 'perpetrators' (for lack of better word) gain out of generating and publishing nonsensical (farkaktical?) papers?
There are circumstances where getting a paper published is a prerequisite for something else (graduating, getting hired, receiving a bonus or promotion, etc.). The general shape of the issue is similar to how and why nonsensical or trivial patents are conceived, submitted, and granted, except that the attack surface is ginormous by comparison.
