Agree 100%. I've been using XSLT very extensively in my current role for at least two years now and I love it!

However, I can say with certainty that I'm the only one within my team that shares this view.

Using it for transformation of XML to HTML, semantic validation (does my XML contain A and B when C='Individual'?) and mapping from one XML flavour to something JAXB friendly. Implementing much of this stuff in Java or other would be a nightmare and/or unproductive process with a LOT more code required.