You are quite correct technically but there are some differences and some other factors that may or may not be significant to you b/c you're a "long term investor that is just reinvesting the dividend?" and your focus should be on total return.

Sometimes, the stock doesn't go down by the amount of the dividend. Sometimes the existence of a dividend is taken as an indication of the quality and future prediction of  financial prospects and thus future growth of that equity.  Sometimes dividend stocks have much less volatility than non-dividend stocks and help an investor maintain their desired AA or invest in equities when they'd really just like CD's.

Sometimes you want to maintain your position in that stock but you're no longer putting new money in the portfolio and you allow dividends to accumulate, rather than re-invest, giving you money to rebalance or acquire other assets.  Or, you're looking ahead to retirement and building your very own annuity letting blue chip positions grow to provide you with an adequate income after retirement.  Or you're in retirement and taking regular withdrawals from your portfolio and this is one way to managing your withdrawals without having to remove an entire year's worth of income in advance before you have to start RMD's.

In my case, I use them as a proxy for bonds for income.  It increases the volatility of my portfolio but gives me income without having to remove anything from sheltered accounts and makes my income more tax efficient at a 15% rate rather than the rate I would pay on bond income.

As you say, it's practical reasons.  You always need to look at the total return but sometimes cash flow needs trump.  Dividend equities provide more total return than bonds but can increase return since it might allow you to be able to have a higher equity/bond allocation.

Roberta