I think framing JavaScript's equality semantics as merely "identity vs. equality" glosses over the issue people have with it, namely that the semantics of equality themselves are somewhat inconsistent (e.g. `3 == "3" => true, `3 == "3 "` => true, `"3" == "3 "` => false, or `null > 0` => false, `null == 0` => false, `null >= 0` => true). This isn't to say that these semantics are objectively wrong (although the lack of transitivity in the former does stretch the definition of "equality"), but I don't think it's really that surprising that some programmers aren't fond of them.

As for things like prototypical inheritance, `this`, and other language features not being distinct to JS, I'll concede that point. However, I still think my main point stands, namely that criticisms of JS aren't just blanket criticisms of "interpreted languages".