I'm guessing because they already knew HTML, so it seemed familiar and easy to learn to them. Similar to how many programmers prefer crazy (but familiar) C-like

I'm guessing because they already knew HTML, so it seemed familiar and easy to learn to them. Similar to how many programmers prefer crazy (but familiar) C-like syntax (C, C++, C#, Java, PHP, Javascript, ...) and dismiss anything that looks remotely unfamiliar even if much saner (Lisp, Pascal, ML, ...).