Sorry, I disagree. It is becoming a dinosaur. It pains me to say it as it was PicAxe that got me started in microcontrollers, but if I was starting now I wouldn't get past the starting gate of cross platform compatibility and I would move on to something else.
I use basic because the first home computers eg. sinclair,amstrad,commodore all ran basic as the user os,,,and it stuck.
I tried c for zx spectrum and gave up. I can't get into c+ even today.
I tried z80 & 6502 assembler and it was ok but tedious. I tried microchip assembler on pics of the time and it seemed more difficult.
So when I wanted to use pics in basic I found picaxe. It seemed a bit strange eg variables usage but ok.
Then searching I found other basic compilers that output a normal hex file for pic and avr.
Some are commercial and cover a range of pics. Others are free but for avr only.
Then I found an open source basic compiler for most 8bit pics and avr that makes hex files.
It's what I use now for 8bit ucontrollers.
It has a tool for defining the pins on later pics..being able to define the pins is necessary, handy for pcb design and a pain in the rear.
A few people on the forum for the basic I use mention they used picaxe so may be picaxe did get people involved in pic programming.
I think picaxe was meant to be a stepping stone or introduction because it has been around many years and things have changed.
I don't see why people don't download the basic I use free and buy a uno or nano for a few pounds and try it.
It's cheaper than using a pic with it as you need pickit2 or 3 programmer.
using avr is just a usb lead...unless you want to code just the bare ucontroller.
The native hex files run as fast as good hand written assembler.