I can well imagine someone turning away from a language because the docs felt old or badly styled. 


One practical effect of it is people preferring
to read articles on other sites rather than
consult the docs first. One piece of docs that
is greatly explained is the sockets section. The part
i am referring to is in the how to section i think.
But i don't don't think much people read it first
before starting to program. 
One site which balances aesthetics and great content
is the RealPython site.