Common misunderstanding of dividends - explanation

 Reddit user wrote something stupid:

One of the main reasons I purchased T was because of the dividends. Dividend paying stocks are valuable for ROTH IRA's because ideally you can build enough dividends to pay out a salary for your retirement, rather than having to sell the stock.

The reply from a Tax CPA explains this popular misconception about dividends:

Dividends should be irrelevant to the investor holding the shares. It's more of a psychological effect than an economic benefit. In order to pay dividends, an entity must generate profit and cash-flows. The company can either choose to retain those profits on their book value or issue them to the stockholders. When they declare dividends, the market value of an entity decreases to account for the return of capital to shareholders. This is why dividend stocks tend to trade sideways. There is no capital appreciation because all earnings, profits, and cash-flows are being returned to the shareholders every year.

As a Tax CPA, I would even suggest that dividends are detrimental. Mind you, you mentioned a ROTH IRA account so this doesn't really impact you but still hear me out. On traditional taxable accounts, dividends are taxed at capital gains rates (ordinary rates if international). You will be assessed a tax, even if you reinvest those dividends. You would be much better off having the business retain that cash or give it back via buybacks. That way you only get taxed at a capital gain rate when you sell. You should be indifferent between a firm issuing $100M in dividends and the stock price remain constant and a firm not issuing a dividend but have its market value increase because it has retained its cash-flows.

This guy explains it better than me here and here.