The fractal surface area of PGP is why it has continued to enjoy such widespread adoption. People need to secure their messages and other systems are far too ridged or specialized for their needs.

Is PGP/GnuPG's horable to use or develop for? Absolutely. However, unless your friends are willing to step up and build something that's flexible enough to cover all our usecases, PGP will continue to see adoption and projects like this will continue to pop up.