I don't even believe the thesis about one dominating the other in a specific domain. I dont think top mentions in conferences in a good measure of usage.
Ok, admittedly, there are a couple reasons. The fact that most papers don't mention the framework they use is a big one. So if users of one framework disproportionately mentioned that framework in their paper, it would be overrepresented.
Basically, some conferences have encouraged researchers to submit code. Instead of checking the papers, I checked their code instead. The results are pretty much the same. So I think that mentions in top conferences probably correlates well with uses in code.
Ok, admittedly, there are a couple reasons. The fact that most papers don't mention the framework they use is a big one. So if users of one framework disproportionately mentioned that framework in their paper, it would be overrepresented.
I did cover this concern though, in the Appendix. Check out the "Biased Sample" section.(https://thegradient.pub/p/cef6dd26-f952-4265-a2bc-f8bfb9eb1e...)
Basically, some conferences have encouraged researchers to submit code. Instead of checking the papers, I checked their code instead. The results are pretty much the same. So I think that mentions in top conferences probably correlates well with uses in code.