What you say doesn’t matter - it is the standards that matter.
It was declared obsolete in 1997 when HTML 4 was first released. It was one of the many HTML 3.2 codes originally scheduled for removal in HTML 5 but because most sites are still written in HTML 3.2 it has been retained. Still doesn’t mean you should use it as it breaks your site for the large percentage of your visitors who don’t know how to fix it who will therefore never visit your site again as it is broken.
If you don’t use it then you are not eliminating any of the choices your visitor has as to where the link opens - they get three if you don’t try to remove one.