I second Guido here, although without his depth of experience. I partially agree with Pan about people bothering to learn to read standard music notation, though, and about its elegance and efficiency as a dedicated purpose communication system. However, it remains the case that many perfectly competent instrumentalists find it impenetrable.
The original point of ABC was not to be an alternative music notation for the player, as such, not to re-invent the wheel. The fact that there may now already be, and in future most probably will be, people who can sight read from it, is a byproduct. Its purpose was to provide a quick and approachable way of recording music on a computer in small (memory consuming) files that could be readily converted into standard notation. No-one has yet, so far as I know, invented a true music notation font/keyboard that will let one type a piece of music out direct using only a typewriter keyboard interface with the computer and similar memory size and file manipulation facilities as an ordinary alphanumeric text. I’m sure such a thing could be done, but it hasn’t, so far as I know. All the software that can convert a performance on a musical keyboard into a notation does so via sound and images - very handily too, I’m sure, but using far bigger computer capacity. I have very little experience of such, so can’t evaluate them, only say that I know they’re there. Finale. Melody Assistant et al all work by rather laboriously placing notes on staves with a mouse and, even with practice, are slow to use. That is the strength of ABC - it is quick and easy to learn its protocols and conventions - even for folks who struggle with ordinary written music, and then very quick and easy to use.
It can be used as a primary medium of record and for easy communication of such records at low computer cost, and also to generate very acceptable standard notation image output. The last is what I chiefly use it for. I used to write out tunes and sets by hand, usually to reasonable calligraphic standards, when I wanted a master copy for my own records or to offer to others. I would then multiply it by photocopying, or more recently by scanning an image and then sending it via e-mail etc. The handwritten route was quite satisfying to do, and I haven’t totally abandoned it, but it is very time-consuming and the masters are then as vulnerable as any paper-and-ink document. I now tend to use ABC, either notations I have acquired from elsewhere, or notating it myself. I can then use the excellent software available to do things like play the notation back, and, most usefully, to convert it to normal music dots that I can read - output at a standard of legibility and presentation at least equal to my calligraphy and far more handy! There is no need to store those images permanently as they can quickly and easily be regenerated from the ABC, and those easily and quickly typed files can readily be communicated to others.
I would never suggest ABC as an adequate substitute for learning to read normal notation, but it is handy for those who can’t, and it is an extremely useful tool for those who can. An old friend of mine - a very fine fiddler - who is classicaly trained to degree level, was formerly very dismissive of it in similar terms to Pan. He now quite happily uses it in ways similar to those I have been trying to explain.
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