The TIOBE index is just reflecting search queries. If someone is familiar with a language, they would be searching about a specific framework, using LLMs/AI agents, and working on projects in that language. Those won't be reflected in the TIOBE index.
Nit: TIOBE measures search results, not searches, specifically results for "Kotlin programming". But you're correct that it's a terrible metric for many reasons.
This probably means that search results that state "<language> programming sucks" or "<language> programming blows" both increase the relevant score in the TIOBE Index.
