Why isn't friction used in force based layouts?

[Vilx--]

I'm reading the description of the ForceAtlas2 algorithm and one thing I'm surprised about is that it doesn't use classical (Coulomb) friction. Instead some sort of "temperature" is used to detect oscillating nodes and reduce it. Also, in other places where I've read about such algorithms, I haven't seen friction being even considered. Intuitively, friction seems to be a good response to the problem of infinite oscillations, since it keeps taking energy out of the system until everything naturally stops. So, why isn't it being used?