That's pretty much the argument I've been presented by the higher-ups who support SAS over R. Even though I mostly worked with R (mainly because it's free), they tell me that I have to re-learn a new, more expensive and less user-friendly program in SAS in order for them to accept my analyses. It doesn't help that I've rarely used SAS since it's so expensive. I've even asked them why they don't just save money and use R, and their response is always the stupid, "We just can't trust an open source software that's free!" Honestly, I think the only reasons why they go with SAS over R is because 1) they are delusional into thinking that SAS is a safer program to go with just because its programming is "checked" more often and 2) they have had a long business relationship with SAS & prefer the status quo over change or are currently in a licensing contract with SAS.