The history of Pi encompasses many centuries. Later in 1430, Al-Kashi of Samarkand computed pi to 14 places. Later, they found the error after the 527-th decimal place. All this leads one to wonder what their fascination is with pi. There are no practical applications for pi at an industrial level.
Simple approximations are suitable for engineering.
One might argue science for the sake of science. Pi has baffled and intrigued scientists and mathematicians for thousands of years. Perhaps they believe there is something about pi that would ease all other types of calculations. Perhaps they believe pi holds the key to future computation in areas of mathematics yet unexplored. Whatever it is, many more surprises and discoveries are to be made.