OP here,
We prefer to use PIC microcontrollers because they come in a DIP package.
Our products are mainly sold as PCBs that a customer assembles in their own home, appealing to the DIY electronics market.
For many, SMD is challenging, so having a DIP package makes us more available.
Additionally, the ability to use less power is useful because our products do not have an onboard power supply, instead relying on the rack's supply that may be shared between many products.
I only know ST ARM chips (aside from AVR I used before I started with ARM), but some low power ones go down to 1.8V and can sleep for years on two AAAs. I see no issue soldering LQFP packages even though I have very little experience (my domain is software) but I can see how DIP is much less assuming.
No, it doesn't make any sense.
If you calculate you can learn one platform and use the knowledge and toolchain to produce wide variety of projects with less hassle it is difficult to defend using PIC for new projects when the only argument would be that maybe it uses less current in standby mode. The price is that you need to live with with essentially obsolete development environment with no future that you can use only for relatively simple projects.