In any case, mass is a self-energy term in the Lagrangian describing the behavior of a quantum field. In current Electro-Weak theory the constant in front of this self-energy term has to be determined for each fermion field in the standard model based on observed experiments. In general, for Non-Abelian Gauge theory, though, the equations are much better behaved if the inherent mass of each field is 0. To get the inherent masses to be 0, we postulate a new field called the Higgs field and show that interaction with this field causes the fermion fields to appear as if they had inherent mass. This had to be assumed to get a sensible Electro-Weak theory, and was used in predicting the masses and coupling strengths of the W+, W- and Z particles before they were detected in accelerators.
Since assuming the existence of the Higgs field gave correct predictive results in earlier experiments, everyone thinks that it is extremely likely that it or something basically like it exists. However, there are a huge number of ways that you can get the Higgs effect with multiple fields as well as the simple one field model. So the exact details of what is going on are fairly murky. Exciting the Higgs field directly, instead of inferring the effect from lower energy experiments, is the only way to get more real knowledge of what is occurring.
In addition, all of the fields we know of, such as the electron field, photon field, etc. have values of 0 when no energy is present. The Higgs, however, is expected to have a non-zero value in the vacuum. By analogy, therefore, this piece of scientific knowledge would be on-par with the original discovery of barometric pressure or the first creation of a vacuum, which is a really big deal. If you think of discovering normal quantum fields as finding objects in a room, this is more like pulling aside a veil aside to reveal another room.
All I have to say in response to your post is...
HUH????????
Exactly. What you said.