Cheers for DISTINCT ON

I just wanted to give my cheers for DISTINCT ON. It is a great
feature, I've just found a really good use for it. I am just wondering
why it didn't make it into the standards.

On a slightly unrelated note, I had the opportunity to work with EQUEL
for a short period of time some 15 years ago before I started getting
famililar with SQL. I clearly remember the disappointment/surprise I
felt as I was struggling to translate some of the constructs I used
with EQUEL into SQL. At that time, I thought that (the by then
defunct) EQUEL was much more
expressive/intuitive/flexible/easier-to-use than SQL. I've been
wondering ever since why the worse so often gets the upper-hand over
the better. (I am obviously having a hard time "growing-up" :-) )

Cheers,
Peter