I drove though there in 2001. My first thought was...”We fought Mexico for THIS?”
The fact that crap land sits on the largest recoverable oilfield in the world is a major attraction.
You were also probably going down I-20, which follows the transcontinental railroad laid down on the flattest, most barren, arid, tract of land to make it easier to build (no brush, no Buffalo grass).
As an aside, Mexico insisted west Texas get taken and actually wanted 500 miles south of the existing border to be part of Texas, too.
Reason being the Comanches and Apaches were the real rulers of the land and part of the trade was Texas would put a lid on the raids from its territory. Mexico wanted as large a barrier as possible. Texas stopped at El Paso only by negotiation. Texas wanted to stop much farther north.
And it was agreed to only because someone had a pipe dream of an intercontinental railroad.