Treating it as something else won't make it something else. It will just require a "minimal" stack of 10 other technologies.

Again, you don't need to believe me, but shoving your head in the sand and pretending it's not useful isn't going to do you any good.

Tons of companies are very successfully using javascript for long-running processes on the server side. And it's not exactly showing any signs of slowing down.

Mhm, they have been.

Then they rewrote everything from scratch because as it turns out, javascript on the server side is still pretty damn awful performance wise.

Beats the hell out of Python or Ruby in that department. But regardless, absolute speed isn't the bottleneck in most situations, and in those cases trying to force JS will end you in a world of hurt.

Like most things in life, use it in moderation, and you'll end up much happier. But if you take absolute stances on things, you are only hurting yourself.