Could it simply be that a lot of the information on the net for PIC newbies is for projects using the 16C84 and for simple programmers that program them.

I certainly started with the 16C84 but I wouldnt use one now. For small stuff I use the 16F628 on my existing projects and 16F88 on the new projects because of the bootloader.

Larger projects are using the 16F877 or 18F452 again with bootloaders.

Somewhere I have some 508's including a couple of JW's that were bought and never used along with a UV eraser that has never even ben plugged in and probably never will now !!!!

As far as I am concerned, Flash + Bootloader + PBP + MCS rules