Macros are absolutely not a way to get around the type system. The things macros let us do are mostly orthogonal to types and there is no contradiction to havin

Macros are absolutely not a way to get around the type system. The things macros let us do are mostly orthogonal to types and there is no contradiction to having macros in a typed language. In fact, that's exactly what Template Haskell is—a macro system for Haskell. It just happens to be awkward to use for a variety of reasons. I would go further: a typed language needs the sort of metaprogramming macros provide to avoid having too much boilerplate and noise. You can either do this with a simple, general macro system or with ad-hoc features addressing narrow usecases a macro system would cover. Haskell's deriving mechanism, record system and syntax sugar like do-notation are all great examples of things that would be obviated with a solid macro system, making the language simpler.