Lindy Effect: future life expectancy of a bit of technology is proportional to its current age (i.e. the longer something has survived, the more likely it is to have a longer remaining life expectancy).
Longevity implies a resistance to change, obsolescence or competition and greater odds of continued existence into the future.
Many traditional materials have the attractive property that they look bad before they act bad and, furthermore, the problems with traditional materials are well understood.