"Why is [language] so popular" may have two meanings:
The person is curious about the popularity of a language.
The person is intrigued to why a bad language has become popular.
The person is curious about the popularity of a language.
The person is intrigued to why a bad language has become popular.
It could be "Gah, I'm frustrated working with [language], let's see if I can find some explanation for this insanity!"
Or it could be, "I've never encountered [language], but I keep hearing it's bad. Why are people saying that?"
I very much expect COBOL is overwhelmingly the result of the latter.
(Of course, neither of these is a good sign, just that they're somewhat different dynamics.)