The thing about niche is that it is niche. As such, it exists only because it is better; bad niche dies. Good niche survives because of strong developers who do not mind that it is niche. I remember a uni professor reporting their students complaining because he was teaching them Lisp. "We want Java, that's where the jobs are." They viewed uni as trade school. In this light, even if I am hiring someone to drive the forklift, I get interested if I see Clojure on the resume. I hesitate if I see Lisp; we do not need someone that bizarre driving the forklift.