Why is houben's Kekule style still in use?
Personally, I don't think it makes sense to say that Kekule's style is wrong. Because we draw molecules in this form, the practice of using a line to represent two electrons shared by * * * is a model. From the point of view of molecular orbital, electrons are indeed delocalized on the whole plane of benzene molecule; From the perspective of hybrid orbitals, the structure of benzene is the superposition of two * * * modes. Different theoretical models used in different periods have their own initial approximation and limitations, but they also have their own advantages. Molecular orbital theory is very good, but sometimes we also want to understand and analyze the properties of molecules from the perspective of localization. Many people have mentioned that when there are substituents on benzene, what will happen to the properties of the molecule: where do the positive and negative charges gather? From the point of view of electronic structure, where are the new substituents more vulnerable to attack? Kekule style can well express this thing from the angle of bending an arrow; On the other hand, even with a simple substituent, it is not so easy for chemists to analyze this problem without using a computer to draw such accurate molecular orbitals.