Erlang is always spelled as Erlang/OTP (i.e. language/patterns of components provided in libraries) + Erlang Run Time System(ERTS) (the BEAM VM + support components). The whole "System" is what makes it so powerful and uniform with a single environment. Every single "feature" exists only in the context of the whole and cannot be discussed in isolation (See https://blog.stenmans.org/theBeamBook/#_layers_in_the_execut... for a graphic).

Compared to the babel/hodge-podge of languages/tools/frameworks used to duct-tape current-day distributed apps, Erlang/OTP is a godsend. It is purely an accident of fate that it never became mainstream for distributed Web programming for which it is eminently suited for. Imagine Erlang running in the Browser frontend and also on the Server backend. Everything would be uniform and clean and one would have a robust distributed system with all parameters taken care of by the "System" itself; we would just need to focus on the "business logic" and be done with "app development".