I confess I am one of the old guys. I discovered friction bar end shifters over 40 yrs. ago. I was using Campy barcons for many years until I finally got around to building a new bike with indexed shifting. I used Shimano barcons for that. I have gone through 7, 8 and now use 9 spd. setups and am happy with the result. I suspect one reason for barcons is the number of older riders who may have been using barcons for years.