> It could be more positive than despise for another language. The preference for a language might be out of emotional attachment at the specific workflows in which that toolchain allowed creativity to flow.

For sure. Ruby gives me warm fuzzies a lot more than Python simply because I first started "seriously" programming in the era when Ruby, Rails, and TextMate dominated back end web development and was on board the RoR train.

Preference of this sort can also be driven by little things that some might consider inconsequential… those bits and pieces can be what makes the difference for someone in determining if a language is enjoyable to write or not.