It's not just the mnemonic, it's also that the location on the keyboard makes ctrl-c "prime real estate" so to say, and cutting and pasting is one of the most common and useful things you do.

> It's not just the mnemonic, it's also that the location on the keyboard makes ctrl-c "prime real estate" so to say

Considering the hotkeys for xut and vaste, I think it's safe to say the mnemonic accounts for zero of the decision and the keyboard location accounts for all of it.