Indeed. I remembered some aspect of directionality, but couldn't remember how to present it in as compelling a way.
(Also, I don't really agree with some objective single value gradient for programming languages. As for anything with multiple dimensions of value, it's not sortable)
Yeah, I think the less directional presentation is probably better. While we can certainly fit things to various hierarchies (approximately or exactly), enough of programming extends beyond pure expressivity (especially into tooling, social, workflows) that it's easy to not get how useful something can be without the relevant context. (This is something that I'm trying to remember, working in JS now after a few years of professional Haskell.)
From a psychological perspective, the non-directional presentation is also more likely to leave people less defensive and more receptive to the thesis.