They are number 6 and have a very high volume, which means that people do not care about scam cases, as long as this problem is not affecting them.
If a certain user is already doing activities in Hitbtc for long time without any problems, then those scam accusations that they will encountered about the trading platform will just be noted in their minds but still they will used the service since as you mentioned they aren't affected.
Overall, there are still lots who doesn't feel the same scam shit by HitBtc and Im one of them that's why Im still using them.
To OP, I understand your frustration. As you mentioned, they are holding your money now "FOR A YEAR" and yet until today, it was not being solved. That is really a worst experienced and moving on isn't that easy.
So for newbies out there, you have lots of reasons not to used HitBTC or accept the risks. It's your own decision after all.