I think people are misunderstanding that you can have a small core language and use that for static analysis (a smaller language means fewer typing rules which

I think people are misunderstanding that you can have a small core language and use that for static analysis (a smaller language means fewer typing rules which means a simpler type checker). You can always define higher level sugar in terms of the small core language to make it easier for programmers which has the advantage of making a more ergonomic language without changing fundamentals like the type system or linkage.