I've been a serious Lua coder for 4 years now, and I have to say that I agree with you about the diaspora factor - Lua users aren't loud, they just get on with using this extraordinarily powerful, small, tight tool. I feel like Lua-heads actively resist forming big community and loud forums, because - like so many other powerful tools - there is a covetous factor involved. ;)

But when things as elegant as luvit/lujit-libuv hit the scene, its hard not to agree with those who have the temerity to proclaim Lua's immense usefulness to the masses ..

Lua just plain kicks ass, its really all there is to it.