My suspicion is that people like declarative better than imperative. When a program reads as a definition it seems to be much more innocent than a bunch of commands.

Same split between descriptive/theoretical, and applied science. The first just increase knowledge - pure innocence without side-effects - the second may build bombs.

(But in the end both functional programs, and pure knowledge made with the intention to go through some interpreter with side-effects (computer/human) anyway...)