[hu3]

> There was always demand for having servers that processed high numbers of requests (e.g. C10K)

Demand is not binary. In 1995 the demand for concurrency was a fraction what it is today. Not only multicore processing was an extremely rare sighting in comparison to what we have today but also:

1. Internet was accessed by 10% of the population vs today's 80%+

2. Capable smartphones? First iPhone came only 12 years later. There was no such thing as internet during commute.

3. C10K for example was coined only in 1999.

The 20 years between 1995 and 2015 did change the IT landscape wildly regardless of your beliefs.

[apta]

When did Erlang come out? There clearly was interest in concurrency, otherwise, why make a new programming language (limbo or otherwise) just for the sake of it?

Just because multicore wasn't common doesn't mean that concurrency wasn't important. Event loops have practically always been there on widely used OS's.