Perhaps it is. PHP is also typically ragged on for being "one of the worst", yet it runs the majority of the web. The common theme between JavaScript and PHP is that it's possible to write some pretty awful code, but that doesn't make it impossible to write _good_ code in either of them. Do we measure languages by the worst we can create with them, or the best we can create with them?
It's also easy to be "one of the worst" when there are only a handful of languages that see widespread use. You only need to be in the bottom 5 of 15 or so languages, but my point is that that may not imply that it's a bad language.
It's not about good or bad code, Javascript doesn't really encourage either. It's a bad tool, but it's good enough for the job. It happened to be the only tool available, up until recently. It will take forever for another ecosystem to catch up.
you need to learn at least 3 languages that you know exactly what means writing good or bad code with a language. After the time you don't want write code with a poor language. If you have learned a better language.
A Software engineer uses always the best tool and not the worst.
It's also easy to be "one of the worst" when there are only a handful of languages that see widespread use. You only need to be in the bottom 5 of 15 or so languages, but my point is that that may not imply that it's a bad language.