I don't think Elm does its own thing. The ideas used in Elm are more "discovered" than "invented" (at least relative to JavaScript), if you're familiar with that line of thinking.

I also don't think its errors are cryptic. Elm's error messages are best in class.

> It's not a language you can pick up and go as easily as Javascript

I don't agree with this either. After having taught people Elm, and also JavaScript as a first language, I don't think mutability is more intuitive to a beginner.