Yeah, they’re more creatures that were supposed to be beyond good and evil, with thought processes so alien and eldritch that the human mind just couldn’t even have an inkling of what their true purpose was. And that’s part of the allure of Lovecraft’s brand of horror, the utter insignificance of humanity in the face of these things, it really started jiving with our understanding (or lack thereof) of astronomy and the universe.

The other part IMO is the sort of shared universe we’ve gotten from the Cthulhu Mythos, it was the MCU of horror of its time, with various writers contributing to it over the years. We now have this whole sub-genre of horror fiction that’s been built up.