Excel is no more dangerous than a hammer. It all depends on who's handling it. As I have seen often here, SAS too can be used wrong unknowingly. It is a people problem, not a software problem.
I'd rather suspect they did not ask IT experts. Maybe because they don't have them. If all you got is Microsoft "experts" (people who went to a MS Office course), you're hosed.
It's definitely a case of "if all you have is a hammer..." imho. Excel is ubiquitous and it being all clickety and without a line of code for most, it attracts all and every sort of use.
Anyone can put some data in Excel, write some formulas, and get some results.
So if you can do it, and if you have no alternative, why on earth wouldn't you?
Till of course you exceed the limits of the software, or the limits of users' competence, or both.
Since Excel is on every machine, and since Excel reports have none of the constraints proper IT processes have, these limits are often reached. The latest snafu in the UK's covid-19 "world-beating" contact-tracing system is another example.
Quick, "free" and easy always wins over slow, expensive and solid, with few exceptions, despite regular warnings. Not that SAS users get much training either at times, as @PGStats points out.
Excel is here to stay, untrained users too, excessive requirements and the need for quick-and dirty reports as well, so Excel catastrophes are just part of the landscape now. Get used to it. See the bright side: Excel can do animations too... 🙄
