When you consider the bigger picture it does seem pointless, because all living creatures on the planet are expected to die at some point. Like if you were to consider the long-term situation of the human ecosystem (like billions or trillions of years from now): What would be the point of reproduction when all of the reproduced lifeforms in the human ecosystem will eventually be destroyed and made inoperable?
If every living thing in the ecosystem will eventually die and rot away, what would be the point of survival and reproduction in the first place? Ideally, you could just live only for yourself and abstain from reproducing humans who would have inevitably died at some point after they were born.
So why reproduce then?
Do humans expect to achieve immortality, or have hopes of achieving immortality? Because besides the theory of boosting "self-esteem" by producing new humans and conditioning them to serve as an "extension" of the parent's desire... The hope of reaching immortality would be the only other possible reason as to why the humankind continues to reproduce, despite the risk that hardship and misery may occur to a newly produced human at a later point in their lifetime.