[s-phi-nl]

Your untrained eye took the # for comments, but I'm not sure that generalized to anyone's. Plenty of languages use # for other things: Smalltalk uses them for symbols, Clojure uses them for reader macros, OCaml uses them for method calls, Haskell can use them as an arbitrary operator, Lua uses them for length, C and C++ use them for compiler directives. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign#In_computing for a list.

Admittedly, Python, Bash, Perl, and Ruby use # for comments, so you do have a point, especially since Python is such a common teaching language.

[rurban]

No, the point is the clutter. A pound # is the most intrusive ascii character, with about 85% black. Older languages were critised to use $ with about 55% black as prefix. It's like writing in ALL-CAPS.

[yAak]

This is a very valid critique in terms of graphic design.

(For anyone confused by the mention of graphic design: it's all about communicating information through visuals.)

[optimuspaul]

Oh, I thought they were hashtags, I was gonna see if they were trending on twitter.