[nickpsecurity]

The problem is likely that the platform won, it has a big ecosystem of tooling developing around it, and targeting it is best route. Maybe they can make a better language that compiles to it. Meanwhile, tool vendors are making tools that correct for flaws in the language rather than a little-known one. Also, given the tools out there, using the platform language with the tools might be safer than the other language.

The language I encouraged people to use for smart contracts was SPARK Ada. It's a mature language used in many industrial projects. Verification is easier with it. Building on what it already had would've cost them less and reduced risk. A SPARK Ada to EVM compiler is all they needed.