I advise you to read more history. WWI was a prime example of wasting time money and resources over nothing much worth while.
There are numerous examples.
Almost every participant in WWI was poorer after the war. The United States may be a major exception.
The reason for this, is while participants may be attempting to be rational actors, they often are acting on false premises about reality or false information which they believe to be true.
“WWI was a prime example of wasting time money and resources over nothing much worth while.”
Perhaps you should check into history yourself as a lot of countries gained land and resources due to WW I. The aftermath of World War I saw drastic political, cultural, economic, and social change across Eurasia, Africa, and even in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were abolished, new ones were formed, boundaries were redrawn, international organizations were established, and many new and old ideologies took a firm hold in people’s minds. World War I also had the effect of bringing political transformation to most of the principal parties involved in the conflict, transforming them into electoral democracies by bringing near-universal suffrage for the first time in history, as in Germany (1919 German federal election), Great Britain (1918 United Kingdom general election), and Turkey (1923 Turkish general election).
Countries that gained or regained territory or independence after World War I:
Armenia: independence from Russian Empire
Australia: gained control of German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Nauru
Austria: gained territories (Őrvidék) from Hungary
Azerbaijan: independence from Russian Empire
Belgium: gained control of Eupen-Malmedy and the African territories of Ruanda-Urundi from the German Empire
Belarusian People’s Republic: gained control of several cities from the Russian Empire
Czechoslovakia: gained territories from the Austrian Empire (Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Silesia) and Hungary (mostly Upper Hungary and Carpathian Ruthenia)
Danzig: semi-autonomous free city with independence from the German Empire
Denmark: gained Nordschleswig after the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites from the German Empire
Estonia: independence from the Russian Empire
Finland: independence from the Russian Empire
France: gained Alsace-Lorraine as well as various African colonies from the German Empire, and Middle East territories from the Ottoman Empire. The African and Middle East gains were officially League of Nations Mandates.
Georgia: independence from the Russian Empire
Greece: gained Western Thrace from Bulgaria
Ireland: Irish Free State (approximately five-sixths of the island) gained independence from the United Kingdom (but still part of the British Empire as a Dominion)
Italy: gained South Tyrol, Trieste, Istria, and Zadar from the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Japan: gained Jiaozhou Bay and most of the Shandong Peninsula from China and the South Seas Mandate (both controlled by German Empire before the war)
Latvia: independence from the Russian Empire
Lithuania: independence from the Russian Empire
New Zealand: gained control of German Samoa
Poland: recreated and gained parts of the Austrian Empire, German Empire, Russian Empire and Hungary (small northern parts of the former Árva and Szepes counties)
Portugal: gained control of the port of Kionga
Romania: gained Transylvania, parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș from the Kingdom of Hungary, Bukovina from the Austrian Empire, regained Dobruja from Bulgaria, and Bessarabia from the Russian Empire
South Africa: gained control of South West Africa
Turkey: gained control of part of the Armenian Highlands from the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Kars, while losing territory overall
Ukrainian People’s Republic: gained independence from the Russian Empire and recognized by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
United Kingdom: gained League of Nations Mandates in Africa and the Middle East
Yugoslavia: created from the Kingdom of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and gained parts from Austrian Empire (part of Duchy of Carniola, Kingdom of Dalmatia) and Hungary (Muraköz, Muravidék, parts of Baranya, Bácska and Banat)
All these were related to the ending of WW I and it’s follow on after effects. So there was a lot on the plate to gain and lose. And Putin appears to be willing to gain less to win the conflict.
wy69