Why do some people prefer rock music and others classical music?   Its about the patterns they know.  Our brains naturally try to cram each experience into a pattern it already knows.  I remember when I used to dislike Jazz music - I couldn't "understand it".  Then I started to listen to Jamiroquai a lot - a funky Jazz/Techno hybrid.   Then later I found that I had learned to like Jazz - I could now "understand it" and know its patterns - but I needed a stepping stone to get there.  It might be that some starts using Pharo with their favourite text editor as a comfort factor, as a stepping stone, and then migrates over time to the standard editors.  So that is a path to draw in new users - but of course that takes effort to set up.
cheers -ben