Just out of curiosity. If you have any other reason, feel free to tell it in the comments.

For me actually i cant wait to lvl up in my playthrough to get my hands an energy weapon.
I love the retrofutristic stuff like the AER or plasmas, also the typical scifi from very good mods out there.
Then i like their sounds, effects, beam or bolt firing.
And being loud and catastrophic overall.
One of my favorite role playing is Brotherhood of Steel with classic T-45 and AER-9.

Guns...more like funs. I think the weapon depends on the enemy.

@TimvorixosGR I prefer lasers and plasma too. The question is aimed towards people who don't/rarely use energy weapons and stick to ballistic firearms instead.

Because Guns are much more fun.

@Robert Edwin House How so?

ballistic firearms fit most of the characters I make better, its probably a lot easier for a wastelander to learn how to fix and clean his hunting rifle than a AER-9 laser rifle

Because pew pew pew is boring.
Bang! Bang! and Brrrrrrrrrrr is fun.

I only used laser weapons when playing as BoS in Fallout 4.

@zack431 To be fair, I don't you'd need to clean a laser rifle. You need to clean a ballistic firearm because lead and powder are filthy stuff. I think "repair" or just "perform maintenance" might be more accurate to what you're thinking.

@Robert Edwin House Fair enough. It's your opinion after all.

Old habits die hard. I'm a 21st century boy, after all, it's all I know.

I love energy weapons in the Fallout games, more so when you get that melting effect on an enemy. But I like guns more because they feel more impactful to me whenever I use them.

My reason is the combination of all of the reasons you provided. Plus they have terrible iron sights and accuracy is really important for me. I also prefer the satisfying sounds rather than the pew pew sounds of energy weapons.

Oh btw there is a mod called "Mikeburnfire's NPCs and Quests" where you meet a silver rush salesman in front of the gun runners and debate which one is better. Guns or Energy Weapons. You have to be level 50 in different skills to argue in favor of guns and win the debate. It's a well written short funny dialogue and explains my opinion on guns really well.

I mostly use guns, since they don't turn people into goo. I don't really like a lot of goo piles lying around, but energy weapons are occasionally fun addition for different gameplay.

Too many good gun mods, not enough energy weapons.

I think gunpowder weapons are cooler overall, at least for me. Even more so with the great weapon mods that it have, and new ones of various calibers and sizes.

For me, it's a combination of variety and early viability. Energy weapons have largely been late game items for me, with the gauss rifle in Fallout 3 and the Holorifle in New Vegas becoming mainstays after I get them, but with me still packing a ballistic gun at least as a sidearm.

There's a lot more unique and pretty looking ballistic handguns too, which also helps determine my preferences.

The only game I've mained energy weapons the entire time is Fallout 4, with my laser musket being my main weapon throughout my Minuteman build.

It's just a force of habit myself and that I like to main the FN FAL, AK-47, Remington 700, Mossberg 590 and Vector since I own some of these firearms/clones in IRL and I'm pretty familiar with them aswell. Since I got the hang of roleplaying in Fallout NV I whip up different outfits before I start a new character whenever it is unarmed, explosives or firearms to match their background.

While i do use guns more than energy weapons because they generally feel better while playing , I think it depends more on the game , in new vegas for example i almost never used energy weapons because they felt weird and floaty, but i used them more than regular guns in fallout 4 .
it also doesn't help that they're generally rarer or given to the player in later stages compared to guns , by which time you'd already be specced in something else and would be unwise to change

I'm not a fan of the retro look. They aren't too bad but get boring for me after a while. Guns also sound more satisfying to me.