1: Some people still make ANSI and ASCII art as a means of exploring the medium.. well, artistically. Check out https://16colo.rs/ and you will see what I mean. They showed around 30 ANSI art packs published for the year 2023. It isn't exactly the heyday of the 90s, but it's not completely dead, either.
2: Some people like to use ASCII art in text user interface programs, in README files, etc. This is probably the real modern use for a program like this.
3: BBSs aren't completely dead, either. :) See: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/ for examples. Most of them cater to the old IBM-PC style character encoding (or some other antiquated platform) and ANSI standards, but I think there is opportunity to have modern 256 color Unicode BBSs. With social media being so problematic in 2024, why not enjoy a tried and true medium? They usually connect over the internet now, of course.
I admit, the commercial applications are limited. It's mostly just good creative or nostalgic fun.
The absolute best justification for coding. Thank you for your detailed response.
ASCII art diagrams can be automatically rendered to an image, too: https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/
experimental outdated wasm build @
https://sars.pengaru.com/wasm/
I found it kind of interesting as a medium for quick-n-dirty cheeseball horrid pixel style art. There's something to be said for a legible toilet paper roll in so few glyphs worth of creative effort/time.