[layer8]

It was an easy way to use an existing plain-text document where HTML was expected.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-html-spec-0...

The PLAINTEXT element was replaced by the LISTING element (which was itself deprecated in HTML 3.2): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1866#section-5.5.2....