I believe showing every post on the front page was some sort of technical limitation of IPS. It also used to show every individual reputation event (i.e. up/down vote), but we managed to squash that at some point...

A few points that come to mind:

1) To my understanding, the lounge is meant to be sort of a catch-all for posts which don't necessarily fit into any of the other forum categories, and this generally includes politics.
2) Being heavy handed on the enforcement of policies in regards to politics or any other controversial topic can have a broader chilling effect on off topic conversations. I would probably close/delete posts which are trollish in nature and have no substance to contribute towards a broader discussion (political or not).
3) Encouraging diverse perspectives is important. I know I've read some forum posts here over a decade ago about athiesm vs christianity, and at the time I was a christian and laughed at the ridiculousness of athiest arguments, but they made good arguments and eventually I came to see and understand their point of view and gradually became an athiest myself. Just because we don't always agree with a perspective doesn't mean its wrong or not valuable, especially if its well argued and supported.
4) I think of politics and policies as a "proposition of a system", and being a game programmer with some systems engineering background, I see value in examining other systems even if they aren't directly related to games or programming. At the end of the day, we make virtual worlds which have their own systems and rule sets, possibly with their own internal politics (ie, skyrim has Stormcloaks vs Empire). I think art can be a commentary on life, and politics can be a part of our life and culture, so there is a place for political discussion in a game development forum.
5) With the systems engineering & politics thing in mind, sometimes I have ideas for different systems of governance and how it could work. I want to test those ideas and find blind spots by proposing them to other people to get feedback. What are its strengths and weaknesses? If I put it into a game / story, could I use the weaknesses of the system to create conflict in my game/story? Could that act as a form of social commentary? I mean, you can look at Cyberpunk 2077 for examples of this type of commentary and exposition on values, culture, politics and policies.
6) Sometimes, there may not be a clear cause and effect from the discussion of ideas, but they can have influences which show up years later...sometimes in game content and how its presented to audiences.
7) There are political things that happen all over the world, all the time, which directly and indirectly impact the gaming industry (check out gamepolitics.com). A mass shooting at a school? People often blame FPS games. China's internal politics doesn't allow games with mentions about Taiwan, tibet, etc. Lawyers (such as the disbarred Jack Thomson) can make ridiculous claims about games being 'murder simulators' and trying to pass legislation against our industry.