Unfortunately, not having powerful macros that can redefine the language hasn't made D popular, so it doesn't really factor into the line of argumentation here.

In any case, this whole debate, starting with the submitted blog and on down from there, is a lot of nonsense that completely ignores the fact that humanity has produced thousands and thousands of programming languages, only a handful of which were ever popular at any given moment. The numbers are stacked against any language, regardless of its peculiarities and merits.

What is popular in this area is a combination of luck, promotion by some big company, or bundling with an operating system or application platform.