Maybe it’s better this way if it were not for people who don’t use pascal going out of their way to bother us.
Yes. This applies to other programming languages as well (but to a lesser extent than Pascal). For example, C# was promoted by Microsoft with a huge amount of money pumped into promotion. The promotion was carried out in two ways:
1) exaggerated praise of the features and capabilities of the C# language and tools prepared for it,
2) harassing and merciless combating other solutions in various ways.
In the initial phase, this concerned the Java language. As of recently, a C# based solution is probably slightly better than a Java based one. But it used to be the other way around. It took many years for C# (and its companion tools) to become really useful. In addition to Java, of course, Microsoft also suppressed other competing solutions, including Delphi (Object Pascal), because it was definitely much better than C# for many years (despite Delphi's known shortcomings). But the goal was not to provide better tools, but to dominate the market. Quality was not that important (i.e. much lower in the hierarchy of objectives). Moreover, Delphi is still better than C# when it comes to windowed (and probably mobile) applications as well.
There's a different fight going on right now: Python versus Java (and partly C# as well). However, in this case, it is difficult to identify a corporation directly involved in such a fight (maybe Google to some extent, although this is uncertain). Here the attackers are whole herds of poor programmers who know only Python (or some other languages like C++, but they couldn't handle them). Such people have no idea about other languages, so they are not able to properly assess the pros and cons of individual solutions. It is obvious to anyone who has dealt with these languages that Python is no match for Java (despite Java's many shortcomings). But for Python users, it doesn't matter. The goal is to "fight the enemy". It is not enough for them to promote their own solution (which is quite poor). Again: dominating, not improving your own solution.
To sum up. Object Pascal was trampled into the ground because it threatened competitors. Now, other solutions are being trampled into the ground level. And at the same time, various fanatics make sure that the trampled one does not get up again. If someone tries to raise their head above the stepping level, they are stepped on again. It's not out of pure malice. This is calculation. The less competition, the easier it is to master a certain area. This does not mean that users of other solutions should give up. We have to fight this pathology.
As for skeptics challenging things, a lot of those skeptics suffered horrible consequences. Challenging established customs and taboos is not always a good idea. Sometimes those things exist for very good reasons because of behaviors which led to disaster in the past.{usury comes to mind}
That's true. Many people were persecuted or murdered. But again: this was most often due to the fact that it threatened someone's interests. But if it wasn't for the skeptics, who knows where people would be now. Maybe they would still live in a cave and shit in some corner of it, because whoever went to piss outside the cave at night would be eaten by a saber tiger or wolves

Yes, there were also those who, by undermining certain social arrangements, harmed society (thieves, murderers, paedophiles, slanderers, etc.). But they were not skeptics, they were scumbags.
If history is anything to go by, it seems like humans basically like to make the same mistakes over and over again on larger and larger scales.
Maybe because those who have already learned something leave. And the others who come do not want to learn from other people's mistakes (laziness and greed). I guess it always was. According to biologists, humans are just slightly smarter animals. There are differences between them, but that's just variability within the species. It's just a pity for those who are less animal and more human. The events of the last decade have painfully reminded us of this fact.