SETQ has to exist, because it is the primitive SETF is based upon. EQ is tremendously useful for testing identity (which is kind of its job...), and conveys int

SETQ has to exist, because it is the primitive SETF is based upon. EQ is tremendously useful for testing identity (which is kind of its job...), and conveys intent (although I mostly use Scheme, where eq? is a lot nicer). And Scheme's macros don't have to be super complicated. explicit rename, implicit rename, and syntactic closure macro systems are almost as simple as CL macros.