The argument is more along the lines of 'the users for these systems use 1-based subscripts in their technical literature so we'll make conversion from formula-

The argument is more along the lines of 'the users for these systems use 1-based subscripts in their technical literature so we'll make conversion from formula-in-physics-paper to running code easier by having the corresponding data structure match the user's expectation.' 0-based arrays are easier for computer folks who occasionally have to implement the code that translates 'a[i]' into a memory access. 1-based is easier for physicists and mathematicians who were subscripting variables before there were computer implementations to worry about and had a pile of literature already written using that idiom. It's just a clash of conventions.