How did WordPress win?

Totally agree:

…people feel more comfortable hacking PHP did and still to this day.

Seriously?

…if I had a dollar every time a significant and loyal TypePad and Movable Type customer confided in me that an employee of Automattic cold called them to encourage and entice them to switch to WordPress I would have quit a rich man.

My opinion:

• Themes are just a folder with of handful of files. That’s easy to understand and play with.
• The UI is awesome.