Here are my reasons for trying to become competent in Pascal.
Again, I'm an old Biophysicist living northern Minnesota. My undergrad was neurophysiology. About 1980 I saw AT&T was interested in fiber-optics. There were many different computing systems around the labs I worked in, from huge to self-made from chips. Libraries were hard to use, and the books were heavy and expensive. So I pushed a fiber-optic "super-network" because "super-computers" were the buzzword. Otto Schmitt filled in that fiber-optics were immune from EMPs (electro-magnetic pulses) from nuclear explosions. The internet really was created for the event of nuclear war. Instead it was the greatest instrument of peace and harmony since the Beatles. Networking protocols were as new as integrated circuits. Everybody was "flying by the seat of his pants."
Energy and environment are issues we now all face. I live near Duluth, Minnesota; the geographic center of North America and farthest inland port. Pascal is the best language for low level instrumentation development. And politics is still rotten.
Other language are good for other things.( I particularly like TCL.) But I have seen nothing close to improving on Pascal for instrumentation.