> This is a strange program of [obscure provenance] ... that somehow, still manages to survive in the 21st century.

Perhaps it "survives" because people have been using it for decades for specific tasks for which it still still works just fine. Just because there are other ways to achieve the same results for some of the tool's use cases doesn't mean that said tool should be done away with. If you don't like it no one is forcing you to use it, and calling those who still use dd "The Cult of Dd" is just ridiculous, in my opinion.