Because there's always a "for what" in there. An an analogy, consider MMA. On the surface, it seems to answer the question "what's the best martial art?". But really, it only answers the question of what is the best martial art for fighting a single opponent in an octogon shaped ring in front of an audience aiming for a submission? And the answer is of course Brazilian Ju Jitsu, exactly the answer the founders of UFC wanted...
Former cop Rory Miller writes about this in his book, the police experimented with BJJ and found it useless. Why? Because in BJJ you pin your opponent on his back because it makes a better show for the audience, but as a cop you always pin your opponent on his front so you can handcuff him!
Ok, sure, but I'd rather see a rough attempt at getting some numbers than just throwing your hands up in the air and saying "gee, that's a hard problem".
Also, I think that we all know enough about programming and languages and their many uses that we can talk directly about it, rather than about an analogy.
Former cop Rory Miller writes about this in his book, the police experimented with BJJ and found it useless. Why? Because in BJJ you pin your opponent on his back because it makes a better show for the audience, but as a cop you always pin your opponent on his front so you can handcuff him!