The point is if you own the stock the high sigma event does not result in a loss but a reduced gain. And we're talking way out of the money so it will be a substantial gain if you get called away. Many call buyers are retail investors speculating on price movements, and are using call options as a form of leverage since they do not have the capital to go long the same amount of stock. Whereas call sellers must own the stock (or be exposed to infinite losses.) There are a few studies that show there are excess returns for option sellers vs buyers but unfortunately don't have a link handy. (See "Expected Returns" the book on amazon.)

edit: AAPL right now is an excellent example of a high volatility stock that is underpriced demanding large option premiums. If you have the capital picking up some AAPL to simply write calls until it goes back up to a fair valuation is a reasonable way to make money, with the caveat that it relies upon Apple breaking above being in the bottom 5% of the market valuation-wise.