I was going to disagree with you, until I re-read and noticed the word "intrinsic".
I would say that language popularity is highly correlated with the actual usefulness of the language. But "actual usefulness" covers far more than the "intrinsic qualities" of the language. It also covers the scope and quality of the standard libraries, the third-party libraries, the available tools like compilers, IDEs, and debuggers (which may be third-party), available documentation and training, and people available to hire who know the language. Of those items I listed, the only parts that could be considered "intrinsic" are the standard libraries and the tooling that comes with the language by default.
I would say that language popularity is highly correlated with the actual usefulness of the language. But "actual usefulness" covers far more than the "intrinsic qualities" of the language. It also covers the scope and quality of the standard libraries, the third-party libraries, the available tools like compilers, IDEs, and debuggers (which may be third-party), available documentation and training, and people available to hire who know the language. Of those items I listed, the only parts that could be considered "intrinsic" are the standard libraries and the tooling that comes with the language by default.