Either way you try to argue this, it's hard to make the case that Java/Javascript is better at any of those things than another language. Productivity be damned, your dinky jar file will get smoked on almost every quantifiable level if you pit it against against a C++ or Rust rewrite. What GP is saying is that the only reason people praise Javascript is because it's a unique language, and I think it's a fair appraisal. Javascript is in a class of it's own, for better or worse, and since it has no real competitors, it's easy to dismiss detractors.

Whenever I encounter Node, issues almost always follow. Whether it's NPM's delightfully useless error messages or a stream of neverending warnings filling up stdout, it quite literally never fails to cause a problem. Maybe Node should focus on saving it's reputation, because I for one run in the other direction of it. Hell, especially in the case of Node, I hope that Deno comes to replace most of it's core functionality. Putting up with half-assed software on a half-functional runtime only leaves me with a quarter of the patience I started with.