"> can spin up a http service in a day
Surely this is a typo?"
I thought we were contesting that point only.
I agree that a lot of frameworks can do that. On top Node/JS also allow developers to do web/native(ish with RN) and desktop apps with great tooling, libs etc. this combo is hard to beat.
I would also bicker that node.js is not that easy to scale horizontally, at least not notably easier to do so than any other single-threaded runtime.
IMO the only edges that node.js has are:
* some people know javascript
* for a dynamic language, the runtime is quite performant - you get more for your core, and that's cool
* I agree with the ideal that you can run the same language on the front and backend, but I have found in practice that two things are true. First, that they are actually different languages, with different runtimes and libraries. Second, the holy grail of e.g. serverside rendering your react app and having the browser take over represents a miniscule minority of JS deployments.
Nothing here means node.js is a bad platform, obviously, but it also is a platform I would only choose because I knew JS and was working with others who knew JS, or I was REALLY committed to the dream of isomorphic Javascript. It doesn't have any characteristics that would cause me to suggest non-JS developers go learn node.js.