I can imagine that the original argument does not apply to the languages which compile to JS. But IMO the fact that there is so many derived languages covering the mess which JS is only supports the argument against it.
TypeScript is just JavaScript with type annotations. The runtime semantics are identical. JavaScript itself has improved to the point where it's great to work with, and arguably the nicest of the common dynamically types "scripting" langauges (python, ruby, PHP, perl).
Completely agree. I used to work mainly in Ruby, and I guess I miss its rich standard library, but overall TypeScript is such a joy to work with that now I use it for almost everything.