I think some of this might be that selection bias. Closure compiler is popular, plenty of not-so-sexy projects have used it since its inception to a great degre

I think some of this might be that selection bias. Closure compiler is popular, plenty of not-so-sexy projects have used it since its inception to a great degree of success. I seem to see it with some consistency in the enterprise world. It's never been popular with the HN / startup crowd.