Why would you pick a language which runs virtual assembler on a virtual processor on a virtual machine? That is terrible for performance, even with just-in-time

Why would you pick a language which runs virtual assembler on a virtual processor on a virtual machine? That is terrible for performance, even with just-in-time compiler technology. I can understand why employers would look unfavorably at that. One of the principal reasons why I sympathize with ANSI common LISP is that when I'm done writing it in a REPL, I can compile it into an ELF binary executable, for performance.