Ice never used Bitkeeper so I can't say if the statements he made are true or not, but arguing that something is good juts because a lot of people use it is most definitely not a valid argument.

The computing world is full of absolutely terrible technologies people keep using even though much better alternatives exist. At first I considered listing a few and then I realise that it's likely most readers are actually users of one of those, but I'm sure you can think of a lot.