Why is this utterly garbage and relatively popular line still played?

Over the course of my stay on lichess I have encountered many dubious openings but this one strikes me the most because of how many people actually tried it against me and failed miserably. It arises from the Budapest gambit:

By move 4, this position has been played around 20000 times on lichess, despite being played a mere 8 times OTB according to the lichess database (not sure about the chessbase one, I'll check later). It truly is objectively bad for Black if the White side has any idea of what it is doing.

lichess.org/study/embed/Ha3gHAiA/GErkOWGs

The only trap is on move 5 if White plays 5.Bc3?? but besides that black's position is garbage.

Where does this even come from and why is it popular?

I'm not sure what answer are you expecting here ? People just do not see the danger with the poisoned pawn and they take it.

@JafarFromAfar They do this usually to gain time on the opponent. Considering that the rítimo is ultra fast, this can guarantee you a possible victory by time. Hugs

This is not Budapest Gambit 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e5, it is Englund Gambit.
It is an unsound gambit, but playable up to 2300 rating.
Here is proof that it is no utter garbage. Sure white gains an advantage. Then white plays badly and black gets a winning endgame. Then black misplays the endgame and the game ends in a draw. Can you win from that position against Stockfish?

@tpr was that satire?

I think the Budapest, where black plays e5 on the second move, is equally unsound, and also not played at high levels. When white, I usually fight stubbornly not to give back the pawn on e5 (not entirely certain how sound that is either) and I find black often gets into trouble, say after black Qe7 (3rd piece attacking e5) white Nd5 attacking queen and threatening the c7 fork. Or if necessary (depending what he did with his bishop) white Qd5 (3rd piece defending e5 and preparing either h3 (attacking black's g4 N, which is then forced to h6) or attacking his queen on e7 with say Bg5. I too don't see the point of these openings. I'm entirely capable of losing any game to a good player if it gets deeper into the middle or end game, but this would be in spite of not because of the opening. The engine graph invariably shows me with advantage at the end of this opening playing white.

Any experienced defenders of the opening?

@tpr

I would go 8 Rb3, not Nb5 on that Englund example.

well, what answer are you expecting? they hope to catch the opponent in that one trap, of course.

don't think too much about it. just keep your cool and continue to play good moves

Played by whom? I wouldn't bet it was played by any of 2100+ players.
A pawn is so tasty, by and large.

#9 above example is by two 2300+ rated players.

#6 Budapest Gambit and Albin's Countergambit are better as the insertion of 1...Nf6 or 1...d5 benefits black more than the insertion on 2 c4 benefits white. Both have been played by strong grandmasters among others the young Kramnik. Black should prevent Nd5 by playing ...Bb4+ before ...Qe7. Black always can gain back the pawn.

#7 It may be that 8 Rb3 is stronger, but white also got an advantage after 8 Nb5. However, white went wrong later and got into a lost endgame. Englund Gambit is playable below 2300 rating. White gets an advantage, but has many ways to go wrong.