What are tournament points?

My subject is a chess.com FAQ. The FAQ answer tells me all about how tournament are calculated. Great, but not what I want to know. What I want to know is why tournament points exist? What the heck are they good for?

I just finished a tournament where I did well and earned 32 points. What does that mean? Obviously I did worse than the winner, who I think earned 160 points. And I did better than many. But what does it all mean? Why should I care? Can I redeem for prizes? Is there a bragging forum where we show each other our point totals?

More precisely, we already get rating points for games we play (daily or live), lessons, and tactics. What do tournament points show that is not included in my game rating?

They are a relic from the site's early days. They aren't good for anything except for bragging rights with a very small group of players.

You're on the leaderboard.

Thanks, that helps. Haha, I'm rising in the ranks 

thanks ,this was helpful

at least a good explanation!

lol