Not an expert nor a historian, but my understanding is that 'find' goes back a long way (*nix has been around a while).
Earlier commands such as find were created back before a lot of command/option syntax forms we know today were agreed to and standardized.
Since 'find' has been around so long, we've just suffered its non-standard syntax rather than risk the chaos that would be unleashed by trying to fix it.
If it makes you feel better, you can console yourself that you're using one of the more arcane incantations of the elder *nix wizards.