I'm still wondering why developers will organize airdrops and distribute an amount of tokens which is far lesser than the minimum amount of the tokens that can be deposited on an exchange for trading. If you don't want the users to cash out the money, why do you let them waste their time?
Airdrop programs help developers promote their projects or platforms to potential investors. Projects with a platform that attracts many users will attract many potential investors to help the project become better and increase. Building communities through Airdrop makes it more popular.
That evidence does not explain well the motive behind recent airdrops, it is more centralized around the making money than increasing awareness in my opinion. More than half of the current ongoing airdrops focused to create base conditions for pump-dump.