Tradition is a funny thing. By funny, I don't mean ha ha; I mean curious, odd. On one hand, it gives people a sense of identity, a reminder of their roots. And it feels good, to know oneself and have a sense of one's past.
Then there's the other hand. Oh, the other hand, always going and messing things up. When people become too attached to tradition, they prevent the growth of new ideas. It's worked this way for 100 years, they say, so why fix what ain't broken?
1) Because sometimes it hasn't worked this way for 100 years. We've just managed to adjust our lives to bypass an inconvenience and it was an acceptable temporary solution that, over the course of the years, people forgot was temporary.
2) Similarly, because maybe there's something better that we haven't found yet. Homo sapiens didn't get to where they were today by not fixing what wasn't broken. Innovation! Adaptation! Evolution! It's what has driven us to what we are today.
In the end, the stalwart defenders of tradition are simply too scared of change to embrace or even accept it. There's no rationale behind it, yet they can't bring themselves to acknowledge that. That's what they call a phobia.