You just described a load of things that it's amazing at:
- it's hip (dont discount that, its important. it excites people, and gives contributors a reaso to contribute)
- it's in JS - maybe not right for you, but there are lots of people who have the opposite opinion.
- it's open source: for some, a closed source editor is a deal breaker. Imagine the people who say "i hate emacs and vim; I'd love to use sublime but it's closed source" - they'll run to atom.
- its got corporate backing (gnome builder may die or wither, there are many who can believe that atom wont because of GitHub's backing)
- it's hip (dont discount that, its important. it excites people, and gives contributors a reaso to contribute)
- it's in JS - maybe not right for you, but there are lots of people who have the opposite opinion.
- it's open source: for some, a closed source editor is a deal breaker. Imagine the people who say "i hate emacs and vim; I'd love to use sublime but it's closed source" - they'll run to atom.
- its got corporate backing (gnome builder may die or wither, there are many who can believe that atom wont because of GitHub's backing)
So those are some pretty big niches right there!