But I'm quite confident that XQuery will be implemented. I think it is a given that some people will never see a reason for XQuery, since XSLT exists. There is a sizable community of people who do see a reason for XQuery. I remember when people were really confused about why XSLT was needed. Object orientation was invented in 1967, but object orientation was not mainstream until the late 1980s.
New technologies take time to understand and appreciate.
Of course, hogwash takes time to recognize and discard. But there have been numerous protests to the contrary on this list. It is just a lot harder to do so. In fact, quite experienced XSLT programmers have sent me wrong solutions to some of the use cases, and we've had long discussions before we could agree that the proposed solution was wrong. Take a look at Evan's paper.