No, I don't think they were hyped at any point. They are used in certain libraries like https://github.com/ptaoussanis/timbre https://github.com/ptaoussanis/ti

No, I don't think they were hyped at any point. They are used in certain libraries like https://github.com/ptaoussanis/timbre https://github.com/ptaoussanis/timbre but for things that are simply not possible without macros, for example (timbre/spy (+ 1 1)) will actually print both the expression and the result: DEBUG [ss.experimental.scratch:1] - (+ 1 1) => 2 This is one of my favorite debugging tools. IMO beats a debugger hands down! Printing can also be disabled with a global library flag without code modification. Perhaps if the macros are "simple" they can be unpacked relatively easily. I do understand how mentally challenging that can be for somebody who's just starting with Clojure. I've been using Clojure for a long time and only just recently became more comfortable with macros after I made a conscious effort in that direction. I'm still far from an "expert" in them.