It's because en passant is kind of a joke with the chess community. They will do it because it's a funny pawn move.
Why do players below a certain elo (almost) always en passant?

Has anyone noticed that players below a certain elo (I'm 1300 blitz) almost always en passant, even when it's a bad idea?
I just played against someone who did this. On the next move I took their queen and they immediately resigned. To me, it was super obvious that I was trying to win their queen, but they still did it. Plus they weren't exactly under time pressure.
If you always en passant can you tell me why?
How often would low rated players get to play en passant?
Your opponent would probably be making his initial few en passant captures of his life - and is likely to be more elated (playing the en passant) than sad (because of the queen loss).

Maybe they thought you didn't know about en passant and they thought they were being clever taking your pawn.
Reasons
1. They think it looks cool
2. They are trying to show that they are smart and knows the move
3. They are too obsessed with memes
4. They just learnt it (like people who just learnt scholars mate do it all the time)

If any move is the only legal move you can make, then it is forced.
So, if en passant is the only legal move you can make, then, as with any other move in thst situation, it is forced.
Otherwise, like any other capture, it is not forced.
This "en passant is forced" meme got started, it appears, because of an example that got circulated where en passant was the only legal move.
Dear beginners: you do not need to lose games because of this false meme.
Has anyone noticed that players below a certain elo (I'm 1300 blitz) almost always en passant, even when it's a bad idea?
I just played against someone who did this. On the next move I took their queen and they immediately resigned. To me, it was super obvious that I was trying to win their queen, but they still did it. Plus they weren't exactly under time pressure.
If you always en passant can you tell me why?