Why is \mathsf{} used for formal systems?

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A lot of times I have seen well-respected members of this community edit posts (including mine) changing things like "ZFC" into "$\mathsf{ZFC}$".

It kind of makes sense, because formal systems like ZFC are almost universally considered to be mathematical objects.

Why, then, not just put dollar signs before and after "ZFC"? I mean, there is definitely a difference between:

I have seen 10 proofs of this theorem.

and:

The number $10$ is divisible by $2$.

What is so special about \mathsf{}? Is it common in the literature to use this font to denote formal systems?