Yeah, I get the impression that in most meaningful ways hg is a better choice on a technical level. But git does have a few real advantaves. Git is faster, though the difference is small enough that I can't imagine this being a serious issue. Git repo's are smaller, particular in the face of (directory) renames.

But the real advantage of git is its popularity. You present that as something worrying; but at the end of the day, hg and git aren't all that different, and popularity means pervasiveness means collaboration is easier - and that's worth something.