[goatlover]

There's other reasons languages become popular such as platform support, marketing, what people learn in school or as a first language, and what gets you hired. Popularity does not necessarily imply any sort of superiority of a PL usage compared to others.

[AnimalMuppet]

I think you are going too far here. Taken at face value, your post says that for programming languages, there is zero correlation between popularity (use) and superiority (fitness for use). That implies that everyone choosing a language for a project is either stupid or ignorant (not the same thing).

That may offer consolation to those who think that certain languages are the best, and who wonder why those "best" languages are used so little. But I don't think it's true. I don't think programmers are stupid, ignorant, or sheep. I think if a tool offers them advantages, they'll use it.

Perhaps I should qualify: significant advantages. There is a cost to switching. The switched-to language has to be enough better to pay back the cost.