yeh... tommis and his scripts gave us a good platform for the fundamentals that make XE so popular to this day.
the mirc scripts and their limitations have actually helped XE on a conceptual basis up until recently. without XE to showcase the potential popularity of a basic VC deathmatch script, done in mirc no less, many scripting talents would still be lost a few years back in time, still thinking that all we need to do to make VCMP popular is copy what SAMP servers do.
there are many other reasons for XE's popularity, but the primary reason imo has to be the administration activity at XE.
XE has many experienced Vice City enthusiasts as members of the staff team, and this shows its benefit on day to day operations, as well as helping create an XE community sense of inclusiveness for the public.
also, most other servers pop out of nowhere one day from some scripters brain, and once he finds out it takes much more than his ideas alone to make a popular server, they abandon their efforts, begin ragging on VCMP and blaming the game for the shortcomings of their server.
XE has never taken this "blame and abandon VCMP" route, we are content to sit on top of a server with no scripts but only to kick/ban cheaters if thats what it comes down to, and we will still tell you VCMP is an awesome game. this gung ho approach to operating a server is what makes XE popular.