I wonder why it wasn't used. Any insights? IMO they should have just made the regular write calls atomic across the OS and have applications opt out if they want.
Non-atomic stuff is simpler on the implementation. Even if the behavior is worse for the user, it's easier to write, and you have fewer requirements to satisfy. So, not having a real pressure from the customers, it's just easier not to do this.
Very few apps need more than the ability to atomically swap a file.
And for the complicated multi write cases, a lot of software just use sqlite which deals with it.