When I looked at Scala briefly in 2006 or so built-in support for XML processing was a big selling point. Another one was 'multiparadigm' - like C++. It was clear at that time that Scala would not become a mainstream language.
XML Support as selling Point + Multiparadigm == !mainstream?
I agree that scala has its quirks (IMO, the type system is way too complicated), but to have dismissed it based on two apparently unrelated features 8 years ago seems a little strange.