It’s missing a lot of things that people really care about (with good reason) like static typing. But I think a lot of dislike also comes from it being more of a functional programming language and not object oriented. I like it because it’s like scheme or lisp but with a C like syntax that I find easier to read. I also like that I can do dynamic stuff with websites. In some ways it’s the perfect scripting language for the web. Just as messy and unpredictable as html.
My company requires either a code demo of existing code or a take home coding challenge. We get way too many people that cannot write code to not put that gate in place. It’s not even too terribly difficult or rigorous. Mostly looking for basic understand of fundamental things like DI, caching, background operations, etc.
Honestly, I did not find that particularly convincing. Lot of typos and leaps in logic. The point is probably kind of true?!?