Why is XML popular in flash?

Im fairly new to flash. Anyway a few months back I did some quick study on how to load dynamic content and everywhere I looked it seemed as though XML was the best choice. Basically cause everywhere I looked people were using it.

I have now made 4 dynamic image and text sites now with Flash/dynamic-XML and I gotta say It is probably the most useless flash technology I have ever come across. Why do people use it over simple variable parsing?

I just figured out how to. Cant beleive how much easier it is. No drama’s with html tags and handles most characters.

eg:
trace(myloadVars.date0); // 2006-03-12 15:56:53
trace(myloadVars.author1); // Willy Necro

&number_results=4&


&author0=<b>Ben Staijen</b> &date0=<i>2006-03-12 15:56:53</i> &body0=Yes, <a href="http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net"><u>CocoaMySQL</u></a> is still developed, but <span class='head'>unfortunately</span> I have very&


&author1=Willy Necro &date1=2006-03-12 14:36:31 &body1=Often remote access to databases is disabled because of security reasons. If you can.& 

With Xml I waste heaps of time just trying to figure out where my nodes are…
x = childNode[0].childNode[0].attributes
or was that
childNode[1].childNode[0].attributes
or was that
childNode[1].attributes
or
childNode[1].childNode[0]

XML sucks!