alt Hacker NewsThe article states:
> The Control key is used with terminal-emulation programs for control-key sequences. For all other applications, it is reserved for end-user-defined shortcut key sequences using a macro-key facility.
I find that a good reason. It's prioritizing the experience of terminal emulation programs. Control-C means SIGINT. And also in Cocoa text controls, many Emacs keybindings with Control are available: C-a, C-e, C-k, C-b, C-f, etc. (And it's very easy to add Emacs keybindings with the Meta key too: it's a somewhat obscure functionality but Apple never broke it. I have configured my computer with M-f and M-b for example.)
In the Classic Mac days, control really was just used for custom shortcuts.
It may have just been lack of user education, but I don't think the ctrl-a/e/etc commands to move the cursor came until they rebased onto UNIX/NeXT.