The options for connectors that are robust enough for stage work is limited and the alternatives tend to be expensive since they are no where near as ubiquitous. 1/4" Phono plug and XLR have proven themselves and only take a couple minutes to replace when an accident happens. So we use XLR and Phono everywhere for audio. The real question is why fragile barrel connectors in three different sizes and no wiring standard for power? And now we have just as fragile USB in three different sizes, but at least the wiring is standard. You can't power up but you can still plug it into the board!

It is rare you see anything in the audio world with an XLR that can not survive an accidental encounter with phantom power. People are paranoid about it but for some reason have no issue with phono being use for speaker connects which is far more likely to kill gear. I used to repair audio gear, every bit of gear I encountered that got fried by phantom power had an XLR to TRS in the mix.