When I started using emacs 15 years ago, most people did not use a text editor as such. They used specialised IDEs, an email app, a text editor, a note taking app etc. I soon realised that using a single text editor for everything that was text was great, and that also, most things are probably text. Like almost everything i do with a computer is editing text.

I think editors like VS Code and I guess Atom etc. to a lesser extend have made a lot more people aware of this and it's caused people to take a new look at emacs since it was doing the same thing decades before and arguably does it better.