For me running on the fells is another way to enjoy the wild experience and see more of it in a limited time. I enjoy running. I enjoy wilderness. Two pleasures for the price of one.
Racing is different because you are more concerned with your own performance than with your environment. Battling lactic accumulation, breathlessness, fatigue, pain....you're more involved with the internal than the external (unless, of course you are being battered by freezing rain). Racing, you aren't likely to stop and watch a hunting peregrine.
That said, I enjoy racing too.....but it's a different thing entirely. I've never done any of the long Lakeland races, and suspect I might enjoy them in a different way....more leisurely, navigating, more time to enjoy the surroundings.
Most of my racing, when I was younger, was on BOFRA "up and down" courses. Pain on the way up....self-preservation on the way down.

I really want to go running out in the wilderness of Swedish Lapland, where I spend my summers. Trouble is, alone out on a densely forested hillside, running....I'd be concerned with becoming a sporting lunch for Bjorn the Bear.