Politeness Theory

I'm reading a book on a sociolinguistics field known as politeness, which believe it or not counts as a real academic category - craziness! This stuff is completely absurd. I get the sense that it's merely the clueless obsessing of academics who don't the foggiest idea of what politeness is. In other words, the ivory tower par excellence; if these loser professors weren't so awkward themselves, they wouldn't feel the need to codify some of these patterns, like for example:

"I say, Fred, old boy.
[not an utterance explicitly realising linguistic politeness; an example of positive politness strategy 2: Exaggerate sympathy, approval]
Would you mind me borrowing your lawnmower this afternoon?
[an example of the negative politeness strategy: Be conventionally indirect]
Mine's in for repair at the moment.
[not an expression of linguistic politeness, but is it interpretable as such in this context?: an example o fthe positive politeness strategy: Give reasons or ask for reasons]"
(Watts, Politeness, 2003)

Isn't that unreal? I'd be so annoyed if someone tried to extract favors from me by addressing me as "old boy," or even a less dorky equivalent thereof.