VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what.

There are a number of times I've had to present something, and the "non-VGA" laptop crowd was unable to, for various reasons, but a VGA port will cut the crap and get you an image on screen no matter what. It's wet? Stepped on it? Bent pins? It'll still work, dammit. Maybe your slides will have a blue tint, but you'll get em up there.

I'll give a personal example. I was at a party and the movie dude didn't show. Only thing available was a banged up projector from the 90s with analog only inputs. Everyone had new fancy laptops with no VGA. Someone had a totally destroyed old laptop with water damage, screen falling off, but you know what it had? Most of a VGA port. I bent off a few pieces of a paperclip, shoved em in there, pointed that old projector at the side of a house, and filled the night sky with sixty feet of glorious analog pixels.

I'd expect more support for VGA in a place like this. It doesn't just guarantee your slides will get up on screen, it's a real hacker's port, dammit!