My big beef with Node.js: it could have avoided the sync/async split entirely by using a synchronous facade atop an asynchronous runtime...but it didn't. Why would you create an entire server platform and not use the chance to simplify the most common use case: fetching data from a database?

I see as a great opportunity completely squandered so that it would cater to the masses: "you don't have to learn anything new!"

Sometimes I think web tech likes being as shoddy and thrown-together as possible.