I just feel like a lot of people here are defining “small talk” as “a conversation that I don’t want to have” rather than any meaningful definition.
I would consider stepping outside in the morning with your partner and stating “oh wow it’s such a nice day today” to be small talk. It’s a conversation without an end goal, sure, but I don’t think it’s as worthless as people are making it out to be.
And that reason would be?