Cats are parasites.
Dogs, by comparison, enjoy a mutually beneficial symbiosis with humans. The dog benefits from the human’s technology and problem solving skills while the human benefits from the dog’s keen instincts and senses.
Cats use their cuteness and meows to mimic helpless human newborns, tricking their humans into giving them food and affection. In exchange the human gets false sense of reproductive success. They are brood parasites, no different from a baby Cuckoo bird.
I write these things as an enthusiastic cat owner. I love my cats and lavish them with lots of treats and petting. They are my babies and I can’t imagine life without them.
It could be argued that giving humans a false sense of reproductive success *is* a benefit for them, as it reduces some of the biological pressures for reproduction, and helps them decide whether or not to have offspring in a less unconscious way.
Insofar as the “benefit” of children is the sense of reproductive success, cats are a cheaper way of obtaining it, and insofar as the “benefit” is something else, cats reduce one of the subconscious component in the decision. Given the huge commitment that is having a baby, it seems like a mutually beneficial relationship.