Depending on certain prophecies, this is (could be) the last pope.
Saint Malachy, a 12th-century archbishop said that the Church will only have the number of Popes as their portraits fit in a chapel that holds all the portraits of past Popes.
There was another about how a Jesuit Pope would be that last Pope.
I think even Nostradamus said something along those lines.
So even if he is “not relavent to reality”, his is still very influential in what he has to says.