It is all about longevity. Some of my equipment is well over 30 years old. The reason they are flat is for storage. When you have hundreds of hives, you can easily store flat ones by stacking them. It's not so easy to store pitched tops, not to mention the actual cost and extra time to build pitched tops. You can also stack hives for shipment with flat tops. Also when you have a lot of hives, rotating them off and the time to paint them is not practical. If your a hobbyist, you have the time and can do whatever you like.