What's to be confused about? There's cogs and gears, gauges, brass, top hats, pipes. Sometimes, brass top hats with cogs, gears, gauges, and pipes in them!
Why would you need a mechanical top hat? Well obviously because it's awesome. What other reason would you need?
Guys, If you love steampunk you should check out Mortal Engines. Post apocalytic wasteland where cities roam around on tracks and devour each other, with plenty of airships, pirates and ray guns? Hell to the yeah.
And yeah, that's dear old London town trekking it's way across the drained English Channel into central Europe. Love those books. Go read them.
Hay guys, can you lay off on Sparky here? We all have features that people find annoying, but that's what makes a person who they are. Personally I don't find Sparky annoying.