I quoted it because, for example, within a small group, I would be the go-to person for "I need software that does X" or "I hate Y, what can I use instead?". I'm by no means an expert in, say, matplotlib, but I have local influence by means of my relative, perceived expertise.

You make a great point. The only thing that I'd add is that a lot of the Fortran code that I'd rely on (large venerable linear algebra and ODE packages) were written a long time ago, when it would have been somewhat less unfashionable.