I grew up in an Indian school in the middle east, and know what you're talking about with pencils considered infantile (grade 5 we HAD to write with pen, and un

I grew up in an Indian school in the middle east, and know what you're talking about with pencils considered infantile (grade 5 we HAD to write with pen, and until then we almost HAD to write in pencil). As soon as I came to college in the US and realized I could submit work in pencil, I ditched all my pens like termite-infested bricks. In my opinion, pencils are clearly superior for everyday tasks. Basically, just with the fact that they can be better erased. To me personally, they feel better to work with because they have finer pressure-based control. This is why a lot of artists always draft in pencil, and leave a lot of details in pencil too. Manga artists, architects, proofreaders, some stenographers, etc use a lot of pencil. Several of these end up inking their work afterword, or using pencil-work just for drafts that are later digitized. However, I can go on about objective reasons why pencils are just better regardless, no particular applications necessarily. They're cheaper. They're not going to go dry because you 'lost the cap' or it's old. You know a pencil is going to work if it has any lead poking out. It's consistent and reliable compared to pens suddenly not working mid-word. They're lighter to hold (less tiring and strenuous on your wrist to write for a long time). If they break they're not going to get everything in your bag stained. They can write well on many more surfaces than most pens. If one pencil fails for some reason (lost?) you can just get almost any nearby pencil and resume (unless you're in an advanced application field like technical drawing or manga artistry) without your work looking strange (2-toned). I keep a pen around for the sole purpose of signing forms and writing checks (where the fact they're harder to modify is actually a good thing), and filling things people ask me to fill in pen.