Because it's using a 41 year old language which has ultra low memory requirements, no dependencies and runs like a bandit, on internet of things. (And can be compiled to machine code by using Awka.)
In Bryan Cantrill's (paraphrased) words: "let there be an orgy of AWK one-liners!"
(Or even better, entire applications written in AWK, since the language is perfect for dynamically generating web applications.)
Awk is pretty awesome - certainly one of my first loves. As I often do when it comes up in an HN thread if anyone has the artwork or is willing to scan said artwork of the infamous Bell Labs T-shirt I would be eternally grateful. It emphasizes the one weak point of AWK which is debugging. The shirt shows a gangly bird parachuting out of an airplane and reads "Awk bailing out near line 1"
The original as referenced here - ftp://minnie.tuhs.org/UnixArchive/Documentation/Books/Life_with_Unix.pdf - is no longer available as "The Independent UNIX Bookstore" no longer exists.
To give the parent the benefit of the doubt, I think the point he was making was less "this isn't awesome" and more "explain why you think it's awesome, don't just place your upvote in the form of a comment".
