Anyway his overall point seems to be that Clojure isn't the only programming language, or the best one for every case. Well, ok. No one worth taking the time to talk to would ever make that assertion, so it seems like wasted bluster.
There was a tweet from Nathan Marz that I felt summed it up nicely a while back "Paul Graham set the bait, Rich Hickey reeled me in". Maybe you're right that I think it's more common than it is because it's true for me, but maybe you think it's less common than it is because it's false for you?
But yeah I'm definitely prepared to entertain the possibility that I undervalue pg's essays in the world of general purpose computing. It may be that indeed Rich Hickey should be paying Paul Graham royalties but I truly doubt it.
Pg -> promoting Lisps. Clojure -> a Lisp. Pg -> influential. Clojure -> got traction on HN and startup crowd.
Not true. Some of us have fallen under the sway of the Rich Hickey hypnotoad. :) Anyway, point being that Clojure is gaining traction because it has some objective strengths that converge in a way that isn't common in the realm of programming languages.