I think it is probably a little of both. For me, Elixir was the crutch I needed in order to break through the Erlang veil. I still like Elixir's syntax a lot

I think it is probably a little of both. For me, Elixir was the crutch I needed in order to break through the Erlang veil. I still like Elixir's syntax a lot better, so I tend to stick with it, but I definitely understand Erlang more because of Elixir.