TL;DR:
Why do I like flashlights? Because they're so handy to have!
Novel version:
After having experienced the awe of the ancient, 4.5 Volt flashlight in the family cabin, I knew I had to get my own flashlight someday - a portable light or something that did NOT require a wall socket!
Many years later, and I think I speak for many here, when I got my first light...the utterly incredible Maglite 2C halogen!
Of course we all know that it is a crap light now, and arguably was even back then...but it was mine. And portable. And it was mine. My own. My precious.
Didn't take long before I outgrew its usefulness, both in terms of actual portability and utility. Not to mention batteries and spare bulbs cost significant money. Especially the batteries weren't cheap for a schoolkid back in the late-90's. But I still had the light for years. All the way until I had decided to save on the batteries by not using the light...for years. By that time, those things had fused the whole light shut.
Skip about a decade, LEDs had just started to hit the market, so I decided to wait and see if I could get a new and fancy light at an affordable price. I think that's when I landed on another C-cell flashlight, the 5mm UV LED + halogen Streamlight 51045. Needless to say, after the UV novelty had worn off, it was just as crappy as the Maglite in terms of actual light output.
Fast forward another decade, I had bought a Fenix HP10 4x AA-battery headlamp. Sporting a whopping 210 Lumens! I used this one A LOT. And at this point, I decided I wanted more lights, more powerful lights, and more variety in lights for different purposes. Turned out the things - once actually having some Lumens to speak of - proved to be useful after all to see things in the dark without needing a wall socket. Who ever would have thought that...
To me, it was never a fear of the dark (or so I tell myself...), but rather the versatility and handiness of having a small, yet increasingly portable and powerful flashlight nearby at all times for whatever I would need it for. Flashlights are like measuring tapes and bit sets - if you can turn around a full circle anywhere in your house and only see one of each, you don't have enough of'em!
Today, after owning some 40 lights, I buy lights either if I need something specific (not really the case anymore), or I want something better in some way to replace an existing light. Having gone Energizer Keychain 2x CR2016 -> Nitecore Tip -> Nitecore Tube for the keychain, and Fenix HP10 -> Nitecore HC90 -> Acebeam H15 headlamp, and tons of others as everyday carry, I feel I am in a good spot now.
Collecting flashlights was never a thing to me (which I also tell myself...), at least not the "special editions" or brass / exotic material ones (though some of the titanium ones looks hubba-hubba!), but rather have many spread around in case of blackouts (which happes like twice a year), and for different purposes. Current interest is high-CRI lights of different types for detailed or special project work.
EDIT:
Come to think of it, I think I know exactly when I wanted to have lights spread around everywhere.
It was after that winter night - and I'm talking northern winter, literally pitch black outside - when I saw Aliens for the second time on TV.
I had of course seen the movie before, so I laid back on the couch and watched with droopy eyes. And during the scene where the aliens cut the power in the movie, at that exact same second...I got a blackout in the house.
Blackout lasted only a few seconds, but damn...I was not in any way sleepy anymore!
Thinking back, that sensation of utter terror was actually quite exhilarating white it lasted (seriously, I'd like to experience it again), but it made me realize that maybe having a few lights around the living room to at least navigate between the furniture could be handy. I did hurt my knee when I impacted the wood dining table after the power came back, but that was only due to my legs still shaking so bad, and not because of a lack of light.