Even if they do debate a petition, there's often not many MPs present.
Getting a petition in the news is more valuable in my opinion. News coverage and spreading awareness puts more pressure on MPs than a parliamentary debate few show up to. Still not great but may change a few minds at least.
Have you ever seen them 'debate' a petition? Those debates are either 1) tiny 2) clown shows 3) miss the point entirely 4) "we investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong".
I saw the one for Brexit.
That wasn't iny, the room was packed, but it did miss the point and it was a clown show.
The key thing that I took away from that was basically "We must deliver the will of the people"
Yes, but all petitions of this kind are meaningless. If they could actually do anything they wouldn't exist in the first place. The major issue is that PMs can appoint their pals to the Lords as a quid pro quo and that won't change without major reforms, let alone a petition. I don't like Boris, but the system has been rigged long before he became PM.