Why do actively managed funds exist if they wont beat the market.

I am mainly talking about funds that invest in individual stocks. I can understand how some may want to invest more in bonds than stocks due to lower risk especially nearing retirement. But in general I would imagine that the goal is just to make money and as it currently stands it seems like nobody can beat the market. So why invest in a actively managed fund that is going to have a lot more fees if it is just going to have a worse result compared to putting it in something like the S&P.

I also see a lot of investors claim that you can't beat the market but then right after saying that try to predict the outcome of individual stocks. Is this not contradictory?

I refuse to believe people are this stupid. There must be some reasonable explanation right?