[ghaff]

>Most people don't even know there are doctorate degrees other than PhD

I think you sort of answered why institutions often award a PhD rather than ScD/DSc/etc. (And there are some related examples related to Masters degrees.) If there's an industry job opening for a PhD, how many ScD resumes end up getting filtered out because the candidate doesn't have the "right" degree? I've definitely heard this type of thing on occasion from graduates who don't or at least didn't award the standard degrees. Even my undergraduate degree isn't quite "normal" (SB vs. BS) so I use the standard form on my resume not that it matters at this point.

[bane]

I can't remember at the moment, either Harvard or John Hopkins was phasing out the ScD because it didn't have the "brand" recognition of the PhD and for years both degrees had exactly the same programs.