Why do people choose to reward 0's with points?
Sproles didn't get any points for his zeros. He got points for his non-zero number of receptions.
If receptions shouldn't be worth any points, then people shouldn't play in PPR leagues.
I dont think anyone is disputing that, but you all are still clearly missing the point. Yay, he caught 4 passes! But for no production. A zero, zero freaking yards. Many people understand what PPR means, you guys just look crazy trying to justify what PPR means as if many do not understand. The OP said he understands, he is talking about the 0 yards. I however agree, if you get 0 yards a player should get credit for no receptions. Its not unreasonable to see that possibility.
It seems to me there are two ways of interpreting the question, "Why should a player get four points if he had four catches for no yards and no touchdowns?"
1. Given that it's a PPR league, why should four receptions be worth four points?
2. Given that four receptions are worth four points in PPR leagues, why would anyone want to play in a PPR league?
The answers, respectively, are:
1. Because that's what PPR means.
2. Some people think it's fun. (If you're not one of them, feel free to join a league with different rules.)
Maybe the OP's point was that although many people think that PPR leagues are fun, there are about a zillion possible scoring systems out there, and many of them are likely fun as well, so why is PPR so popular? Why shouldn't we award points for first downs instead of for receptions, or why shouldn't we award points for receptions only if they're for positive yardage, or why shouldn't we award points for touchdowns only if they're not scored in garbage time, or why shouldn't we subtract points for an interception only if it was the quarterback's fault, or why shouldn't we award points for staying in bounds to force the defense to use a time out? And so on ad infinitum.
There might be a zillion different answers to those zillion different questions, but a decent default answer to most questions of that sort is that such complications would be tedious, would probably seem arbitrary, and would likely appeal only to certified public accountants.