Place mats and their places in the world

If doormat is used to describe a person who is easily pushed around and seemingly contribute zilch to what is of value to this world, then place mats should given an even lower standing.

I still could not figure out how are place mats more useful than doormats (these guys are indeed very useful!).

I mean, do people really need to have place mats to know where to sit? Don't the chairs do a good job at that? So what's the point of using place mats when you have no guests to impress? If you think you only need to wipe the place mat and not the table after using it, think again!

So place mats, I think, serves only a decorative purpose. Look pretty and thereby making the dining table and the dining area look prettier, too. (This implies that ugly place mats would truly be in useless existence).

Now that I have established the role of place mats in my universe, I would join the rest of the population who use them, except I would know why I use them.