You have a point. But it sounds to me like half the point is, "the new way of doing things is popular". Great. Windows is popular, too.
And the Mac really hasn't gained much market share with OS X. I think it's actually declined. The CRT iMacs are what pushed Apple back into success, and they ran OS 9 (for the first few years, at least).
Don't get me wrong, OS X is great. But I hate it when people compare OS X directly to OS 9. Of
course OS 9 is going to look bad. For one thing, it's just not sexy. That's probably the most important thing in attracting new users, not functionality. Secondly, it's outdated; it lacks many of the newer technologies than make OS X great.
Much of what OS X is is based right off OS 9. Most of what makes OS X
great comes from OS 9! You shouldn't act like they're completely different, and you shouldn't act like OS X would be just like OS 9 if they had kept a little bit more of their old philosophies. When we old hands whine about OS X, it's not because we want it to be just like OS 9 and we wish Apple hadn't moved forward. It's because we wish Apple had avoided some very real mistakes in design philosophy. It's not because we hate the Dock (for example), it's because we see that Apple could have made it much better.
But we're getting WAAAAAY off topic here.
As I said, I am one of those "old hands". But you know what? I don't use OS X the way I used OS 9 when it comes to application launching. Not at all. In OS 9, I didn't have Butler. I kept aliases around the edges of my desktop (eww!) and I had my FKeys set to launch certain apps. I also used contextual menus a lot (powered up with FinderPop) and the Apple menu to launch apps. I don't use any of these methods in OS X.
So when I use application launchers, it's not because I'm clinging to old habits. It's just the opposite: because I'm willing to explore
new things, and use them to work more efficiently.
The first thing I do when I set up friends' computers is install Butler. They always think it's the coolest thing in the world.
Try it. If you're willing to change the way you work a little, you'll come to love it. I guarantee it.