Well, presumably an advance will eventually provide a competitive advantage. For example, before the Copernican revolution, we had a model for the cosmos that

Well, presumably an advance will eventually provide a competitive advantage. For example, before the Copernican revolution, we had a model for the cosmos that made decent predictions. The heliocentric model actually made worse predictions for a long time until it was evolutionary improved. However, to the early scientists who adopted it, the heliocentric model "felt right." Maybe right now programming in a shitty language like javascript with no regard to program structure is better at "getting shit done" than programming in a functional language using universal abstractions like composition. To people who study and think about it, though, it "feels right." Perhaps if they stick with it and perfect the art, it will eventually provide such a competitive advantage that it will be universally adopted.