Do you have any updated sources? This data is from 2013.
I think the parent comment's exaggeration of the number is bad form for web developers, and goes against the spirit of the web, which I believe is based on the principles of universal access and inclusiveness.
As a web developer, for me the problem is that writing anything modern without JavaScript is a much harder task that only really benefits a small minority of users. I'm unfamiliar with any disabilities that would require JavaScript to be turned off but I could see this being a valid usecase.
That post also implies that the figure is stable.
Your second paragraph is a perfect example of the kind of attitude that I think is problematic. Yes it's more work to accommodate non-JS users. But so is building ramps for people in wheelchairs. The discrimination gets "baked in" to your/our development processes, and you/we justify the discrimination based on the idea that the only ones who will suffer from it are a "small minority".
It's like assuming that everyone uses a mouse. Clearly some don't, and if we develop the web based on that assumption, we're going to leave a lot of folks in the lurch. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard[0].