If the desire to not use JavaScript is widespread, is that a sign that the pool of software developers are all wrong or maybe it's a sign that there is something truly distasteful with JavaScript?
The problem is that a lot of people who "don't like JavaScript" actually don't like dealing with the idiosyncrasies of web technologies.
Instead of developing an understanding of the environment JavaScript was developed in, its limitations and the idiosyncrasies that shaped the language as well as the methodologies that have been developed to work around that; people appear too spend a week learning to write JavaScript (from W3 schools) as if it was C#/Java/Other C style language the developer is already comfortable with.
Then they write code, shitty let's pretend this language is other language code. Since the web stack is designed to fail gracefully, there are no compilation errors, fatal runtime errors rare and the mistakes made attempted to be corrected or gracefully dealt with by the system.
If one is used to writing unforgiving languages like C++, one might conclude that everything is fine. Because hey, it kind of runs in my browser!
Other devs come in. Do the same thing. Code turns to spaghetti. Global variables everywhere, improper scope, implicit type coercions and (of course) insufficient unit testing.
Now the code is in production. Users interact with it using a different browser. Packages and features are added. The code is a mess, weird bugs are starting to appear and the product is a mess. "Oh well, it's because JavaScript is shit but we had no other choice. It's all Brendan Eichs fault."
None of the developers I've met that have strong negative opinions on JavaScript appear to have made an effort to understand it and how to work with it properly. Instead it appears easier to just disregard the language as a piece of crap.
I don't blame rain when bad drivers get in car accident. It really is true that there are bad drivers in the world and that they are numerous.
That is faulty reasoning for a couple of reasons. What size is your sample pool out of total developers? Degree of passion in an opinion is not evidence of it being widespread or how widely spread.
Although a faulty premise the point you make is still valid, but more complex than you are suggesting.
* Perhaps many developers are not properly prepared or educated to that language or in general. Is that language a common language of primary focus in many computer science programs? There isn't any established licensing or certification program to qualify competence in the industry for any language.
* Perhaps there is a common lack of motivation to perform well in this language. Many large organizations set performance targets that are far out of alignment with product quality or code authorship.
* Perhaps there is a common lack of mentoring. It could be reasoned that sometimes new developers are thrown to the wolves at work and the people they are supposed to be reliant upon for guidance are just as insecure.
An example I work on a team at a really ginormous company that is incredibly insecure. I spend most of my time performing copy/paste instead of writing code and the code has all kinds of problems. It would be faulty to blame the language for such poor implementation and such poor internal development.
By far the most common behavior I have observed in the big established corporate world is that most developers enter software development careers from a computer science education. Most of the time the languages of primary focus in education are C++ or Java but not JavaScript. The result then is to make JavaScript behave like something an inexperienced developer is more comfortable with using an architecture in a box and when that doesn't fully work simply add tools until it does work. The fact that JavaScript is multi-paradigm and can behave like Java, somewhat, isn't helpful.
These same frustrations exist for a variety of other popular languages as well. The only one thing that separates JavaScript from other popular languages, in this regard, is that JavaScript is the language of the web. If you are forced to work on that software platform JavaScript is forced upon you to all your emotional anguish and sad loathing.
I think it is a sign of people being asked to do things they don't want to/know how to.
I actually like writing JavaScript, but there are guys on my team who are more backend orientated who are occasionally called upon to do frontend fixes in JavaScript and they hate it and moan and grumble from start to finish every time they have to do anything.
And that is fine.
The trick is don't ask people who are not JavaScript engineers to write JavaScript. Same way that you don't expect the electrician you got in to fix your broken sockets to also unclog your toilet.
