I don’t understand why so many groups baby their maknae

It makes sense why this happens in groups like Le Serrafim or NCT where there’s a large age gap and the youngest is genuinely really young/was when they debuted, but it doesn’t make sense in other groups like Xdinary Heroes where Jooyeon was literally already twenty when they debuted or in groups where everyone’s really young. It’s kind of weird because most friend groups I know don’t even care about age that much unless the gap is huge.