The big point here: less characters for the same logic is not always better. Saying that you need less characters to write function x in coffeescript compared to javascript doesnt mean it is better.

Its all about syntax and semantics. Code from languages with a small and consistent syntax, one-way-to-do-it, and a easy semantics are easier to understand than languages with a lot of semantics.

For example, Scala is cool. But also overly complex. The same holds for C++. But languages like clojure are very simple to grasp and the semantics of these languages are very small.