To actually hit the point, it's probable that the Wheel already used the Amayar for whatever purpose it required (something with the Sea Folk, likely). Their usefulness being over, they were free to live their lives or follow their nutso philosophies. Like idiots, they chose mass-suicide. If the Amayar were the porcelain makers, then I guess the market for it will increase drastically. It'll all go nuts once TG is over and Logain invents Ebay for Randland (I predict this will be his glory and power event).

I don't know why RJ created these Amayar. Yes, I find their lemming-like love of suicide to be stupid. And their beliefs seem plenty crazy.

Still, folks all over the real world believe ridiculous things - that they'll ascend to heaven on a spaceship, that religious temples are good places for orgies... Usually, you grant respect to belief systems that "sound reasonable" and (above all) give respect to all people. But even some "on-paper" respectful beliefs can sound unreasonable.

The major religions can sound kind of nuts when you think about them. This all comes from rational analysis, and with no offense intended, especially since I only know one religion well enough to mock it, and I'm covering others here too:
Judaism prohibits saying or writing God's name. And working on the Sabbath may result in death; some members pre-tear pieces of toilet paper, because they feel it might violate the Sabbath. Christianity borrows Judaism's Torah heavily, but persecuted Jews with fervor, despite the fact that JC was a good Jewish mensch all his life. Both Judaism and Christianity feature a god who ruins Job's life, because of a contest with the Devil (who a perfect God would obviously ignore). Buddhism's ultimate goal is to become God him/her/it-self, and says that everything is an illusion; that belief alone sounds like it's impossible to do anything, really...

And yet many make open fun of Scientologists. The idea of a sci-fi icon's religion - one based on spaceships, frozen aliens and volcanoes - may sound totally nuts. Does it sound that much more nuts than abstaining from pre-marital sex, or 7 trumpets, or 100 virgins in paradise? Folks batter Scientology more validly when they say no religion should require financial donations for spiritual advancement.

Let's not forget that we're living in a real world where many people actually claim their religion is "Jedi." =)