people are getting excited over a rehashed idea just because it can do more than pop-ups now
People hate reforms and clean breaks. Dragging shit out and making it better by small increments is always has the upper hand over reforms in people's minds. Also, installed base, user base, etc. Javascript had a much bigger chance of being displaced if it weren't for jQuery (which is more than a small increment of better, I must say) and the like. In fact, if jQuery were spun off into its own browser scripting language, Javascript would be history. That's how shit evolves in tech, most of the time.