Why are guitarist so attached to tabs?

I was a musician before I was a guitarist. I played the sax at band/orchestra in school and I know a little piano. When I first started learning to play the guitar I would play a lead mostly by ear. But, I stuck to chords 90% of the time, until I started playing with a group. I looked for some riffs to play and they are ALL in tablature forum. I talked to another player about tabs/sheet music and he only plays from tabs, it seems like all the guitar players I know only play from tabs because they can't read music. It's not hard to learn to read music and it allows you to communicate so much easier with a keyboard player, or any other type of instrument.

Long story short, written music is a language. Why do guitarist insist on using a different language than every other instrument?