This has all to do with PSD, Post Sunni Disorder. Because since day 1 this namaz is drilled so hard into your brains, that Islam starts with namaz and Islam ends with namaz, without namaz there is no Islam. Anyone who even misses one time is hell bound and only namaz can fix the world and be your only ticket into the here after. Namaz is that magic thing that is the answer and cure to everything.
So obviously people find it so hard to actually believe it doesn't exist. So much so, even people who have left their erring ways and accepted the Quran as the one and only true form of guidance, do a mish mash and selectively chooses bits and pieces of the Quran and come up with their own version of it.
Hadith is filled with such fantastical fairytales. I remember reading the story, oops I mean hadith about a bunch of sailors lost in a storm ended up in a mysterious island, which they went to explore and found a huge hairy beast chained up which could talk. ( Kong Island anyone? )
Cut a long story short, it turned out to be the dajjal. Which contradicts other stories, oops I mean many other hadith ( no surprise there ) on how this imaginary dajjal is supposed to look like. Some stories says he will be a skinny dark skinned man, others say he will have ginger hair and only one eye etc etc.