Fair enough, but it does not form part of their alpha generation, their edge, how they derive value. Charts are often pulled up when a buddy calls up and points out a certain asset to take a look at. Nobody trades based on that. Nobody trades double top formations, doji patterns, moving average divergences, or buys a stock which price exceeded a certain "resistance level", not based on a chart, certainly based on data, yes. Charts are as you said to take a quick glance at past price action, but it does not perform as tool to make future trading decisions.
If you look at pics of professionals trading at their desk, most often you'll see several monitors, most full of data/tables, but often at least one with a chart.
Data supplies the info and number crunching formulas across many levels, but the chart supplies a perspective which data struggles to display.
For example data will get you most of the way but the chart - just a quick glance - can zero in on one instrument to confirm something if you had doubts.
If I wanted to describe a trade, a chart is often better than just raw data.