Yeah - back in the day A/S/L was asked so you had a rough idea of the type of person you were talking (typing) with…
37/M/India v 15/F/US would give you a very rough idea of the demographic the other person belonged to - and might shape your conversation differently.
Yes - but it is meant to be deliberately backwards as a check and a balance. The idea is that if every law was made and passed by the currently elected politicians only then there’d be a flood of kneejerk reactionary populist laws only. The idea is to have some people with an eye to the bigger picture…