Some weirdos just plain like it more than high-level languages. One of those weirdos is developing the Linoleum language: http://anywherebb.com/bb/index.php?l=D4JeGEdhacS6Srr6QLQgZpW...
If you want simplicity, you look at lisps; homoiconicity is perhaps the most elegant, simple concept known in computing. It may be more complex in practice (many more layers above the bare metal), but in concept it's simply beautiful.
15 years ago, I did Intel-style assembly--and loved it even with all its clumsiness. But I just dove into ARM a few weeks ago, and am loving it even more. Such sweet pleasure to code so close to such a beautiful and simple machine!
http://www.cconcepts.co.uk/products/publish.htm http://www.cconcepts.co.uk/products/artworks.htm
Although I wouldn't recommend choosing assembler for a destkop app, but it made sense when they were written. And I still think Impression beats many a word processor and DTP package available today, and it ran in 2MB of memory with no hard disc.