I don't have any base issue with javascript; I think it's a wonderful way to build web applications. However, TOR and the dark net has entirely different considerations, and the cost of letting unvetted code run without asking you from a site you know nothing about is far, far greater. I wouldn't be surprised if just being on TOR would be convincing evidence for an unknowledgable jury, even if the site was about something legal but connotative (activism targeting the federal government, for example).
I see the first two sentences of your reply as inextricably linked and contradictory. You don't think it's the culture of it being acceptable to make sites that won't work without JS that is ultimately forcing the Tor folks to enable it? For instance, reading up on this subject I found this:
> Why is NoScript configured to allow JavaScript by default in the Tor Browser Bundle? Isn't that unsafe?
> We configure NoScript to allow JavaScript by default in the Tor Browser Bundle because many websites will not work with JavaScript disabled. Most users would give up on Tor entirely if a website they want to use requires JavaScript, ...
I see the purposes of the internet serving content-rich web apps and the purposes of TOR as different. They may have compatible protocols, but if GMail ran on TOR nobody would even use it. Why bother? It's slow and it's gonna leak information like a watering hose.
