I agree, but I enjoyed doing Google's semi-secret random-invite-only "Foobar" challenge, which gives you a series of coding problems with a silly story attached.
I think even that very minimal structure helps mentally elevate it from a boring math problem to a "real" scenario.
The broader contexts could be this: look at this puzzle as a way for reinvent sorting as a delegation of operations (split + combine) instead of traditional "swapping" of values. As CPU arithmetic is faster then memory operations some real treasure may be hidden in this new approach.
That is clearly nonsense, as the results of performing the arithmetic still need to be written back to memory, so it's just a swap with extra operations. See also the xor-swap.
I tried doing leetcode for a while but basically just get bored of it
My brain is wired to solve problems and puzzles, but not in isolation. Removed of context I just can't convince myself there's any value in it and I bounce off just as you describe
If the EXACT same puzzle was presented as part of a real problem with context and reasons, my brain would be all over it and I'd work out a solution.
As another comment says, it will inevitably show up as a coding interview, one that I would likely fail!