The idea that today's languages and technologies are truly better than the past is laughable, particularly when they recycle so much of what is old and slap on a new name

That's really orthogonal to the discussion, though. This isn't about general superiority, it's about legibility and barriers to understanding/skill due to syntax and keywords. Perl is infamous for the "code golf is the default style" syntax, keywords, and tokens it employs in this context, and in my experience at least its most ardent fans believe it is a badge of honor.

It isn't, really, and it's the same mistake PG makes when discussing "car", "cons" and the like.

Indeed. And I disagree with your opinion. For all its terseness its still wonderfully expressive and it goes against the horrible trend set by Python with its "one true way" bullshit. That we all so willingly accept the commodification of our trade so the paymasters can eventually decrease our demand is shameful.

We should strive for a certain level of difficulty if anything to separate the wheat from the chaff. You wanna play with the big boys? Learn to code in a big boy language.

Instead we let the trainwreck that is modern JS take over.