You are reasoning exactly around the space I was when I wrote this article. Why in a world of intense competition is Java still even alive let alone dominant?

Software engineers LOVE to kill off inadequate tech if something better can be built. It’s a past-time.

So those three reasons are what I really identified:

1. There are great engineers who really care about the language
2. There is at least some kind of decent communal governance process so it stays responsive to changing tides
3. It just cleared away a lot of mental clutter with the simple decision to be All Object, All the Time.