Ruby has always been a little cultlike in its approach. I don't necessarily mean that as a negative, I'm just not sure what other word I can use - and it's true of so many other platforms as well, it's not solely a Ruby thing by any means.

I've always viewed computers as lowly tools meant to do my bidding, so I don't really understand this sort of emotional attachment that people get, but it's definitely a real thing that people feel. The only pragmatic way forward is to accept that this happens and figure out how to incorporate it into the larger context of software engineering.