Food waste, how do people even do it?

This is a bit of a random topic for me but it mostly stems from this humble iceberg lettuce I finished off today having for tea.

The best before was 17th of Jan this year... And it's still crisp and fresh today!

Are best before dates really this bad? Or is our fridge just that good? It's probably that best befores are just pointless to have.
Our fridge is like 7-8 years old at this point, Fairly modern but not new by any means so I personally think the only date on food should be 'Use by' dates.. where it's likely that using after said date is dangerous, although those are still way off a lot of the time for me.

Anything else is just pointless and leads to people throwing away perfectly good food.. Sure you could probably try educate people on the proper use of the labeling but really...

It so difficult to change how anyone does things 90% of the time it's better to just do away with what doesn't work.

I just don't get it really.