Mostly its this way because the language has evolved over time and relies heavily on several similar but competing interpretations of how things should be done. Similar thing happened to PHP, back in the web1 days.
That’s a pretty common turn-of-phrase in Ireland, I remember hearing it in the early 90s!, and it’s still common to hear it from older generations too. I wouldn’t equate it with reddit slang/culture at all. I wonder when it made its way to reddit?
They may have been launched from within Russia.