Why? It might be worse than a <p> and a <ul> with links to papers but it loads ok and it’s basically a point of pride amongst academics to have an ancient or amateurish looking handmade website. Perhaps it is a signal that time is spent on academic work or a that the site was made by the academic (and so has useful materials for academics) and not by some publicist who does not provide useful academic materials.
Why? At least it's not hot pink or otherwise eye-blinding. I still find it charming that many Japanese sites seem stuck in 90s web design. But recently I've been running into more Japanese sites that seem to have advanced to mid-2000s web design, with proper CSS and designs that use curves and angles and don't force everything into a box shape (visible or invisible)! That's my favorite era so I hope it's a while before they join the rest of us in bloated SPA hell.
