Because Erlang is different. It's not just the syntax, even though that throws many people uncomfortable with much that's not a direct descendant of C syntax; it's the whole programming model which requires a real shift in perspective that simply isn't easy.
It's worth it once you start to "get it", but that can take a bit.
I do think Elixir gives the Erlang VM a better shot at the big time, because it lessens the syntax obstacle for many people.
> an extremely robust, highly opinionated event loop with its very own DSL
It's very reductive. Erlang is a distributed platform with a functional programming language, lightweight processes communicating through distributed asynchronous shared-nothing message passing, preemptive scheduler, etc.
Because Erlang is different. It's not just the syntax, even though that throws many people uncomfortable with much that's not a direct descendant of C syntax; it's the whole programming model which requires a real shift in perspective that simply isn't easy.
It's worth it once you start to "get it", but that can take a bit.
I do think Elixir gives the Erlang VM a better shot at the big time, because it lessens the syntax obstacle for many people.