Education – learning to do something yourself – is a worthy end unto itself. Learning things is fun. Knowing how something works front-to-back feels good.

If you're making something that's meant to be load-bearing, something professional that will be used in production, then yeah, just use LLVM. But otherwise I think it's important people feel free to decide the goals and constraints of their hobbies and to pursue their preferences when it comes to their personal projects.