Doom's staying power might be the most remarkable thing about this. I can't find it, sadly, but I still vaguely remember a PC Magazine article around 1994 about a Doom mod that would run on Unix and delete files in a similar manner.
'Can it run Doom' and 'Can it run Crysis' are two very famous benchmarks for entirely different goals, but they still stick around because they're easy to remember and easy to grasp. The versatility of Doom is really one of the best example of hackery that has ever been
Right? I think it's because DooM is so recognizable and so snappy. Fast action, clear visuals, no cutscenes or chainsaw animations to interrupt the flow. Only Quake1,2,3 games have similar traits and are also used for tech demos and proofs of concept.
I replayed it a couple years ago and it holds up really, really well. Great level design, fantastic gameplay.