Sure, subatomic particles are the foundation for reality, but as humans we don't walk around thinking about the world in terms of each object's subatomic struct

Sure, subatomic particles are the foundation for reality, but as humans we don't walk around thinking about the world in terms of each object's subatomic structure - it's simply too low a level for most activities. We operate at the level of thought, images, words, concepts - abstractions. Why should we be spending a lot time of programming at the level of the computer's fundamental structure or even be using idioms from that level? This is not to say we as researchers and practitioners should not comprehend this level and occasionally operate at it- but most of the time we should be expressing our ideas in the most expressive way possible. Also I'd like point out it's not like functional programming is a fad. It's roots go back almost 50+ years alongside structured programming. These paradigms have coexisted and influenced each other significantly over this time and as evidenced by the current of crop of interesting programming languages, there's lot more evolving to look forward to.