I agree. This is something I tried to explain to others in my last job, with little success. A person using a language long-term is only a novice for so long.

I agree. This is something I tried to explain to others in my last job, with little success. A person using a language long-term is only a novice for so long. After they've figured out the basics and become comfortable solving problems, they become interested in efficiency. Designing a language to cater to novices is like designing a bicycle with only low gears—it's easy to get started, but increasingly difficult to move fast. I.e. the Turing tarpit [1]. I'm biased, and admittedly don't have a lot of perspective on this topic, but I have seen the effects of poorly-designed languages on the application development process and its output. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tarpit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tarpit