[jjmarr]

C++ feels like a counterexample. There's zero or arguably negative hype behind the language and everyone I know hates it.

However, we continue to write new code in C++ due to libraries and because people know it. These are all factors that the OP considers to be negligible.

[kagakuninja]

Young Padawan, C++ was once a cool language, and I had to battle at multiple companies before I was finally able to make the career switch from C.

The conventional wisdom was "Where will we get C++ programmers?", "We don't have experience with C++", "C++ is too bleeding edge", and so on. The same excuses people give today to not use Rust, or your favorite hyped language.

If we follow the logic of OP, we will almost never develop new languages, because there are already multiple established languages good enough for any task at hand.

[morshu9001]

I've been in situations where we use C++ for no good reason, and it's just cause the others hate the "noob" ones like Python or JS.