As someone who actually learned programming with JavaScript, back in IE 5 days, I agree. Writing dumb little "guess the number" games or copy-pasting snippets from DynamicDrive.com to study and adapt made it very easy to get started, and that you can upload it to a free host and share the link gives you an extra incentive.

I've since learned a few more languages, and I don't particularly enjoy writing complex JS programs, but I'm very glad it was there when I got started.