I get the sense that people ate such things when the only other choice was starvation. Then their grandchildren thought it as traditional, so now they’re stuck with it.
Before refrigeration there were a lot of disgusting foods. My father grew up with salt cod which was more salt than fish. For him it was a comfort food and he wanted us kids to like it as much as he did. Blegh! As kids we still buried tins of milk in the yard to keep it cool(ish) and when it curdled, dad would make cottage cheese. Smoke houses and root cellars were kinda scarry.
“I get the sense that people ate such things when the only other choice was starvation”.
When they ran out of the starvation food they developed suicide food, rotting Greenland shark.
I have tasted it
Once read a comment about Surströmming.
"Somebody really wanted to eat that shark!"