[Tex/LaTex] What are reasons to use BibTeX instead of Biblatex

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Given the rich set of features that Biblatex offers over BibTeX et al., one has to wonder why the latter is being used at all. Legacy code aside (which seems to be easy enough to adapt, anyway) the only real disadvantage seems to be the lack of support from publishers.

The question is: external pressure aside¹, is there any use case where you would not choose to use Biblatex for a new document, and why? What are objective reasons to teach BibTeX to LaTeX novices?

Background

In the context of my earlier question on designing BibTeX code export for Stack Exchange, the question arose which systems that export should support.
Obviously, if your bib file uses entry types, field or formats from Biblatex, users that use e.g. natbib+bibtex may have a bad experience.
I'm trying to make up my mind about whether we should care.

If there is no good² reason to use BibTeX, maybe there is no reason to support it in third-party software; but that is a separate discussion. The more interesting outcome is that there are good reasons, in which cases such software should definitely support BibTeX, and find another way to enable users to use the full potential of Biblatex.

Ultimately, this post is about collecting reasons, not for weighing them or drawing a conclusion.

  1. External pressure such as "I have to compile this document which I can not change" or "this publisher won't accept anything but a bibtex .bbl, period" are immutable and thus not open for discussion. I'm interested if there are other reasons.
  2. I don't consider external pressure a good reason, from an author's perspective.

Best Answer

Hidden in the mass of comments, a couple of reasons for sticking to BibTeX have been brought forth. I'll list them without comment; everybody will have to make up their own mind about their priorities.

  • bibtex is faster than biber (1, 2).
  • There are, as of today, many more styles for BibTeX, including not-yet ported journal styles (reference needed, in particular for styles in frequent use).
  • BibTeX is stable. (claim; unclear if about bugs or changes)

For the sake of completeness, I'll also include external factors which can not be done away with by localized efforts:

  • Legacy documents may only compile using BibTeX, and changing them may be impossible (e.g. source under no-change license) or not desirable (e.g. different output).
  • As of today, many (academic) publishers insist on the use of BibTeX.

For reference, see a description of the advantages of Biblatex here.

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