A free software project doesn't have to be ubiquitous, or even popular, to be a success. Things like usability, usefulness, technical excellence, beauty, community activity, contributor-friendliness, and longevity are all legitimate software successes, each in their own right.

Never mind the veracity of the reasoning you gave— why are we even looking for reasons to discount and dismiss a beloved, storied, ongoing F/OSS project like FreeBSD?

Why do you think NetBSD is more popular? Of all the BSDs FreeBSD is by far the most widely used.

If that's how you judge popularity?

FreeBSD is far more of a general OS, NetBSD is more known for its minimalism and extreme breadth of hardware support. It can run on almost anything.

But in terms of usage numbers I'm pretty sure FreeBSD trumps it.

Regarding NetBSD that is not true today. Linux has much more wider adoption on many different hardware. Toaster days are over :)