For many journeymen developers, the choice of programming language is important. There are many, many companies out there that do look for people with N years of experience with language X and not every developer out there is in a place or at a skill level where they can afford to be picky (the average HN developer isn't representative of this population).

Ah yes, the 'ol "need 10 years of experience in a 5 year old technology"...