Because it is harder. Why do you have brutal bootcamps when you join the military? To eliminate your assumptions and break you, and show yourself your limits and form a foundation upon which you can build something that lasts.

One's experience of adopting to new hardships and challenges can either be an uphill battle or downhill. You start with a hard language with manual memory management and small community you are forced to figure things out on your own, learn by helping others and contributing libraries. Then you can appreciate easier languages and learning them would not be as steep of a curve compared to starting off easy.