Why is D unpopular?

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

On Wednesday, 3 November 2021 at 15:42:17 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
> On Wednesday, 3 November 2021 at 14:02:52 UTC, Ola Fosheim 
> Grøstad wrote:
>> I doubt I would have looked at D if the connection to C++ 
>> wasn't used as a "marketing trajectory".
>
> In contrast, I knew about D for many years before even looking 
> at it, because I didn't want a better C++. I wanted something 
> that wasn't C++. Go and Rust clearly separated themselves from 
> C++, so I used them both before trying D. The only reason I 
> even downloaded DMD was because Go and Rust had a certain kind 
> of suckiness to them that I kept searching.

Yeah, I get the suckiness thing, but when did you start to use D? 
I think D presented itself differently up to about 2014?