I think the important distinction-- and the reason that I never got very far in Forth myself-- is that with Forth, you don't have the pile of tools and raw mate

I think the important distinction-- and the reason that I never got very far in Forth myself-- is that with Forth, you don't have the pile of tools and raw materials, but instead a forge and some ingots of various metals. You really do often end up rebuilding even things you'd normally consider simple library functions in most other languages.