If Google steals your clicks, why does SEO even matter?

Google works hard to give searchers answers without making them click through to content pages. That’s why the quantity of no-click answers on its search engine results pages seems to grow every day.
Meanwhile, content marketers work hard to improve their rankings on search engine results pages because they want searchers to click on their content.
Given these seemingly opposing goals, does it still make sense for content marketers to invest time and valiant effort in SEO?