JavaScript was originally built in just ten days to handle lightweight tasks within a web browser, like validating forms or animating buttons, not to power the heavy logic of server-side infrastructure. Using Node.js forces this fragile scripting language to do work it wasn’t designed for, lacking the strict stability, type safety, and multi-threading capabilities of robust languages actually engineered for servers, like Java or Go. By pushing JavaScript onto the backend, the industry prioritized the convenience of not learning a second language over engineering rigor, resulting in bloated applications, security vulnerabilities from excessive dependencies, and significant performance ceilings that proper backend languages simply do not have.

I think it’s only popular among us. Out there in the industry there are tons of developers who attended a three months training course then landed a job in big tech corps. None of them or the language itself cares about efficiency. Something that works before they move on is good enough.