It really doesn't "hobble" language. In all the time since the muddying of the word literally, I've yet to come across a use of it that can't be inferred contextually. The end result is that now there's even more flavor to language, not that it's hobbled.
People complaining about literally being watered down, literally need to chill. Go read a non-technical book or something and re/learn that language is absolutely unstrict. You can do whatever the hell you want with it and use words in ridiculous ways, and it's all valid. The only thing that matters is communication. If you understand that "I literally died when I saw it come off" and "he literally couldn't fit through the doorway for 20 minutes" have different uses of literally, what's the issue? You want every word to be a reserved keyword?
People complaining about literally being watered down, literally need to chill. Go read a non-technical book or something and re/learn that language is absolutely unstrict. You can do whatever the hell you want with it and use words in ridiculous ways, and it's all valid. The only thing that matters is communication. If you understand that "I literally died when I saw it come off" and "he literally couldn't fit through the doorway for 20 minutes" have different uses of literally, what's the issue? You want every word to be a reserved keyword?