The "success" of a language is determined by what the language can do, not what programmers manage to do with it.
It is entirely possible there is a language that exists that can do more and do it faster than any other language in existence, but "most programmers", the ones who make a language "popular", either don't know about it or don't want to learn it.
"I also disagree that it is not believable that the vast majority of programmers have been boneheaded for 40 years."
http://paulgraham.com/icadmore.html
The "success" of a language is determined by what the language can do, not what programmers manage to do with it.
It is entirely possible there is a language that exists that can do more and do it faster than any other language in existence, but "most programmers", the ones who make a language "popular", either don't know about it or don't want to learn it.