Combination is the soul of chess.

Studying chess always begins with tactics. That's what attracts players - the beauty of chess combination. If you look at the games of young players you'll see that they are mostly tactical. I personally had a "pleasure" of losing to weaker players simply by overlooking tactics.

Solving tactics has an indisputable benefit of developing counting skills and seeing the tactical motives. Tactics give us a tool of converting one advantage into another. However, every problem implies that there is a solution. That's not the case in real life. In OTB games we create the position ourselves and then find out whether there are any tactical motives at all. There may be none. Combinations usually occur due to opponent's inaccuracy or a blunder. Yet, forcing tactics in an "unripe" position could often finish with making your own position much worse.
Solving tactics is quite addictive. Also the problems repeat quite often (in different variations sometimes). Nevertheless, that trains your memory and also contribute to improving your performance level.

As Rudolf Spielmann said "I can comprehend Alekhine’s combinations well enough; but where he gets his attacking chances from and how he infuses such life into the very opening – that is beyond me" That means performing a combo once it exists - is not a big deal. Creating a position where tactics exist - that's a true talent.