It's a build tool, written in node, so it was the first front end build tool that saw wide usage 3-4 years ago. Used for things like concatenating and minifying your CSS and JS for production.
It was succeeded by Gulp, which was succeeded by Browserify, which was succeeded by Webpack, and then I moved to the backend because fuck this shit.
I needed a job. You make it sounds incredibly easy to find work. I have less than 2 years experience in the industry. After getting fired from a startup, I was desperate to get my foot in the door anywhere. I was also desperate to pay my rent. IBM have filled both those needs.
Its also the same argument regarding the war on drugs. It never works but thats not really the point. The point is to create options to apply pressure whenever government decides it wants to.