I'm not very experienced with suspension, I only had one other set in my life and never serviced them. I've been doing some research though and it seems almost everyone who still rides these old forks prefers springs to elastomers. I'm just going by their experienced opinions.I am always curious why people choose springs over elastomers. When the performance and the ride feel of steel springs are way "worse" then elastomers? Also the costs are almost the same. The work and effort you have to do for servicing is also the same. AND with this fork model, a service and maintainance (lube) dont even take 5 minutes. In contrary to other forks where servicing or reaching the elastomers or springs can be painful.
Springs do seem like a more logical solution, we see them used in so many everyday applications, maybe it's just the familiarity and relative simplicity of springs that people go for?